Set of Antique Villeroy & Boch Floral Coasters

One of my favorite examples of giving an antique a completely new life. These two coasters were hand-cut and individually sanded from antique Villeroy & Boch plates by a French artisan, preserving portions of the original floral decoration while transforming damaged or otherwise unusable tableware into something functional again.

The original pattern is “Fleurs des Champs”, or “Flowers of the Fields,” decorated with brilliantly colored poppies, daisies, blue flowers, buttercups and green foliage over a warm cream ground. The underside retains portions of the original factory marks, including “OLD ABBEY WARE,” “Fleurs des Champs,” “V. & B.M.,” “SAAR BASIN,” and pattern number 1584. Examples of this exact pattern survive with the same 1584 backstamp.

The “Made in Saar-Basin” / “Saar Basin” wording is particularly useful for dating them. Villeroy & Boch used Saar-Basin markings during the period when the Saar territory was administered separately under the League of Nations following World War I, approximately 1920–1935. Museum and ceramics-mark references specifically document Villeroy & Boch using the Saar-Basin designation during this period. 

So although these have now been reinvented as coasters in France, the ceramic itself dates to roughly the 1920s–early 1930s, making them around a century old. I love that the transformation still leaves enough of the original backstamp intact to tell the story of what they once were.

Each coaster is slightly different because it was cut from a different portion of the original plate—one captures a large red poppy and smaller field flowers, while the other centers a fuller bouquet of poppy, blue and white blossoms.

Condition / Disclaimers

Antique ceramic that has been intentionally altered from its original plate form. Each piece was hand-cut and sanded by a French artisan to create a coaster; therefore the edges are not factory-produced and may show slight variation in shape, thickness and finish.

Expected antique crazing, surface wear, discoloration, glaze variation, utensil marks and small imperfections are present from the original tableware and are considered part of its history. The original maker’s marks are only partially preserved due to the cutting process.

Because these are antique ceramic pieces repurposed by hand, they should not be expected to be perfectly uniform. Sold as a pair.

Dimensions: 4.5x4.5