Rare Italian Scallop Cupboard

From a casale in Tuscany and found in Béziers, this early-19th-century set of open shelves stood in a farmhouse kitchen, back when nothing was hidden behind cabinet doors. The plates, the bowls, the copper pots, and the day's bread all lived out on shelves like this, within arm's reach of whoever was cooking and on show whether the family meant them to be or not. It was put together entirely by hand, the shelves slotted through the side posts and pegged from the outside without a single nail, then finished with a scalloped edge that turned a plain kitchen rack into something worth looking at. Sylvie uses it for books, ceramics, and the things she actually likes to look at, leaned against a wall the way it was built to stand.

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