A functional thing of beauty

This I have to share. I have found the perfect cup from which to drink my morning coffee. It’s exactly right with a wide brim, a deep bowl, so when I cup my hands around it the tips of my fingers do not meet. It means that I can get a lot of coffee in here and the aroma of the coffee can escape to further entice me.

The other thing that is of vital importance to me is that it is white. I don't like drinking from cups with coloured interiors. Why? Because you can’t see what tone or hue your coffee or tea is. How can you possibly know if it has been made to the correct strength. Also it’s more appetising to see the real colour of what it is you are about to drink. Everything you eat from and drink from should be working towards increasing your enjoyment.

So what joy, this cup has a white interior, and a beautiful minty-green trim around the inner edge. On the outer edge there is a forest green line. This gives the cup an elegant, understated appearance. It doubles it’s chances of doing an excellent job and being a simple thing of beauty.

Alright, it’s not made of bone china or porcelain, if it were, I have to admit, that my cup would naturally runneth o’er.  No, it’s just made of ordinary glazed earthenware, but I won’t hold that against it. In a way, its utilitarian appearance mixed with beauty is very country French, aesthetics are vital but so is practicality.

If you look at the cup side view on, you can appreciate the balanced shape it has. A nice deep bowl, an old-fashioned tea-cup handle, but modern detailing. I really love the three ridges that run around its circumference half way down, and the way that this detail is picked up, chevron-like, in the handle. It has impeccable aesthetic credentials and a real design integrity.

There is a small chip on the lip, but at the other end of the cup. As I’m right-handed, this chip is never going to trouble me, though a health and safety obessesive would say it is unhygienic.

It’s not for sale but joins my personal collection of coffee cups all built roughly along the same lines. The great sadness is that I found only one, and no saucer. Of course I’m going to use it, making it’s life expectancy shorter but wants to work not sit like a pampered poodle on a shelf.