A guide to café au lait bowls

Is there anything more French than starting the day with a large bowl of café au lait and a crusty croissant? Every old French film illustrates the morning coffee ritual with a café au lait bowl and a croissant.

Behind the colors, patterns, and patina, there is also a history and a collector's mania. In this guide, I will attempt to provide an overview so you know which models to look out for if you are a collector. If you are not a collector, you can use it as information when checking prices for café au lait bowls.

Why is there no handle?

Why is there no handle when it is meant for drinking coffee? It doesn't have one because the bowl is designed so that you can warm your hands while drinking your coffee, and at the same time, it makes it possible to dip your baguette or croissant directly into the coffee without having to squeeze it into a cup that is too narrow.

It is informal, cozy, and very French.

The different models

The classic faceted café au lait bowl (Bols à facettes)

The classic faceted bowl features vertical lines all the way around and is most often found in white, cream, or pastel colors.

They are characterized by being simple and timeless, yet also robust. The facets make them easier to hold, so this is not just a design detail, but also a practical one.

They are typically produced by the great, historic faience houses like Digoin & Sarreguemines, Badonviller, Moulin des Loups, and St. Amand.

While the white models are the most classic, the great favorites among collectors are the rarer pastel-colored versions in, for example, light blue and mint green, which gained popularity in the 1950s.

Vichy check (bol à damier)

Café au lait bowls with Vichy checks are very reminiscent of picnics - they have checks on a white background and are often red or blue, but can be found in many different colors. It is how the horizontal and vertical lines form squares that makes them the Vichy pattern.

Checks that are only placed at the top of the coffee bowl (geometric band) move from Vichy to Art Deco and provide a more architectural expression than the Vichy pattern. And if the pattern fades out, we are looking at an Airbrush/Degradé design.

Stencil (Pochoir patterns)

In my view, these are the most decorative bowls. The patterns are applied with stencils (pochoir), and because this method requires manual work, no two café au lait bowls are 100% identical.

You can tell the difference between stencil and transfer by looking at the edges: Stencil patterns have a slightly "dapped" or sponged edge, which provides more life and depth than the transfer method, which has perfectly sharp lines.

Although floral motifs are the most common, stencil bowls can be found with everything from geometric figures to small fruits.

Within stencil coffee bowls, one also finds the airbrush method. Here, a stencil is used just like with pochoir, but instead of dabbing the color on, it was spray-painted. By controlling the spray gun, a degradé effect was created, where the color fades gradually. This gives the bowl a modern, graphic expression that was very popular in the 1930s and 40s.

Transferware

Coffee bowls with transferware are characterized by incredibly thin lines, fine shadows, and small details that are impossible to recreate with a stencil.

Where the pattern is applied through a stencil in the pochoir method, here the pattern was printed from a copper plate onto paper and then transferred to the faience before it was glazed. In the picture above, a clear "seam" in the pattern can be seen – a classic characteristic of transferware.

Within transferware, there is a simple rule of thumb for age: The monochrome (single-color) prints are the oldest and date all the way back to the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s. They are typically found in colors like deep blue, burgundy, black, or green, and the motifs are often stately and detailed. The polychrome versions with 3, 4, or 5 colors are typically from the mid-1900s, and they have more complex motifs and resemble modern porcelain a bit more.

Sizes of café au lait bowls

Many coffee bowls have a number on the bottom, which indicates the size. Most large faience manufacturers operated with a system from 1 to 6. Note that they can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

There are coffee bowls that do not have a number on the bottom at all. That does not necessarily mean they are fake or of lower quality – some faience manufacturers (or specific time periods) did not use the numbering system.

So, get your measuring tape out if you are in doubt!

This is a quite essential section. For when buying or selling vintage, "condition" is a broad concept – what one person sees as "charming patina," another might see as a flaw.

Here is a draft of the section on Condition & Value, which helps your readers navigate what to accept and what to be cautious about:

Condition: Patina or defect?

When buying faience that is over 70-80 years old, they naturally do not look brand new. But there is a difference between a coffee bowl being OK and having actual damage.

The good patina

Crazing, also called crazing, is the fine net of cracks in the glaze, which is completely natural. It happens when the faience expands and contracts over the decades.

Discoloration and yellowing often come along with the crazing, because it is coffee, tea, and time that have seeped into the material. It is often seen at the bottom of the bowl and is highly sought after among collectors - it is called "beurre" patina.

If you are not entirely fond of the discoloration, you can soak the coffee bowl in a mild hydrogen peroxide solution, as it draws the coffee residue out of the crazing. Personally, I love the yellowed patination, but that is a matter of taste.

Many coffee bowls have small inherent flaws - especially in the old productions, there may be grains of sand or small holes in the glaze. These are not damages, but rather signs of old craftsmanship.

Things to be aware of

• Hairlines, which are thin dark lines that run through the porcelain. The coffee bowl can easily be used, although one should be careful with hot contents.
• Chips are typically found along the edge or on the base. On rarer patterns, a small chip does not mean much for the value, but on a plain white bowl, it lowers the value.
• Matte glaze can mean too many trips through the dishwasher, causing it to lose its resistance to dirt, and the colors lose their depth.

Take good care of your café au lait coffee bowls

A final remark - remember to take care of it. Old bowls and dishwashers are rarely good friends. Wash them by hand with a mild soap and they can last for another 100 years.

That was my walkthrough of the different types of French bowls, which I hope gave a little more insight. I know there is something missing regarding the manufacturers and the stamps on the bottom - and not least the time periods. That will come in the next post, because it concerns not only bowls, but also French faience in general.