Home Shopping: Delicate porcelain tableware at Emma Challier

Metalic detailing and romantic themes make these dainty, shell-like pieces chic and stylish.

Romantic cups and saucers. Courtesy of Emma Challier

The French ceramicist Emma Challier has Vietnamese ancestors and her work is strongly influenced by her heritage. Delicate and refined, her dainty shell-like porcelain tableware is finished with pretty metallic details.

Her latest collection is called Twilight and features what she calls Message pieces, decorated with marbled platinum and romantic French words. Silvery lettering dances across the dinner plates; Bonheur (happiness), Reve (dream), Poesie (poetry), Delice (Delight), Envol (flight) and Plaisir (pleasure). They're perfect for an extra-special dinner party. I'd use them on a crisp, white tablecloth with mercury-glass votives and candlesticks for a really luxurious look.

The coordinating cups are cute, too. You could use them for water or juice at the table, or you could put one beside the bathroom basin for toothbrushes.

Don't miss the dinky china spoons, which look as though they have been dipped in metal and have an irresistible fragility. Use them for serving rich desserts - chocolate mousse or lemon possets - in style.

Emma's Romance collection is inspired by 18th-century paper-cuts and Chinese traditional paper stencils known as window flowers. It features black silhouettes of lovers, trees, birds and picnics. I particularly like the designs in which the pattern is reversed and the background is black but the scene and characters are white.

Before you log off, have a peep at Emma's delicate jewellery collection. Simple, subtle and chic, it's as delicate and delightful as her tableware.

For shipping rates to the UAE, visit www.emmachallier.com or call 33 68 675 9433