Stefano Ricci SR Porcelain Rectangular Ashtray — Fine Paisley / Palladium

Stefano Ricci SR Porcelain Rectangular Ashtray — Fine Paisley / Palladium

Palladium is a platinum-group metal — rarer than silver, with a surface finish that reads as brighter and more precise, a cool silver-white that does not yellow or tarnish with time. Across the SR accessories range it defines the cooler half of the hardware palette: where gold is warm and rich, palladium is controlled and exact. Applied to the Fine Paisley design on white porcelain, palladium produces a composition in which pattern, ground, and hardware are in complete tonal agreement — silver-white metal on white porcelain, the pattern present as a shift in surface quality and reflective register rather than as a color contrast.

This is a different object from the gold version in more than just hardware. The gold Fine Paisley is a warm-toned composition — the colour of the pattern against the white porcelain, the contrast between the decorated surface and the undecorated ground, the warmth of the metal in both pattern and rest. The palladium version approaches the same design from the opposite direction: the pattern rendered in cool metal on a white ground, the two elements so close in tone that the design is legible in light and texture rather than in colour. It is the more demanding composition — requiring more from the quality of the porcelain surface and the precision of the palladium application — and the more restrained one.

Fine Paisley in Palladium

The Fine Paisley motif — the dense, intricate rendering of the ancient boteh form — is applied to the white porcelain surface in palladium. The pattern at this scale and in this metal rewards close inspection: the curved teardrop forms of the paisley visible as palladium on white, the figure present in the surface without announcing itself from across the room. This is decoration for the desk, the kind that reveals itself over the course of a session rather than declaring itself at entry.

Palladium Cigar Rest

A single palladium metal cigar rest completes the piece — hardware in the same metal as the pattern, the composition fully resolved in the cool register. The rectangular format of the OAP17R places the decorated surface and the cigar rest in a horizontal arrangement suited to the desk: one rest, one cigar, one place.

Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.