Louis XIII Debuts Its First Porcelain Tableware Collection

Louis XIII, the storied Cognac house known for gracing royal banquets and presidential tables, is stepping into an entirely new realm: fine tableware. The maison has unveiled the Louis XIII Art de la Table Collection, a porcelain collaboration with France’s esteemed J.L. Coquet, marking the brand’s first foray into serveware beyond decanters and crystal.

The debut includes two limited-edition lines — “Soil is our Soul” and “Light of Time” — each designed to reflect Louis XIII’s heritage while complementing its world-famous Cognac. With just 750 sets of each available, the pieces extend the maison’s philosophy of rarity and craftsmanship into a different, but closely tied, culinary tradition.

For the project, Louis XIII turned to J.L. Coquet, the Limoges-based porcelain atelier renowned for its luminous white tableware used in Michelin-starred restaurants. The partnership, executives say, was a natural extension of the brand’s long history in gastronomy, marrying French terroir and artisanal artistry at the highest level.

For a company that has found itself in hallowed halls aplenty, from Versailles’ royal banquets to an audience with President John F. Kennedy at the Élysée Palace, the expansion into a new category for Louis XIII needed to feel natural and had to be flawlessly designed. 

“We wanted to start with something that made a lot of sense for us,” Anne-Laure Pressat, Louis XIII’s global executive director, tells Food & Wine on a call from Paris.  “We have always been part of this gastronomy setting.”

The two collections comprise six pieces each, including a large dinner platter, dessert and soup plates, a rice bowl, as well as tea and coffee sets. Each collection, available online now through the Louis XIII e-commerce site, is limited to only 750 units, a nod to the size of Louis XIII’s rare cognac tierçons.

In working with J.L. Coquet, Pressat and her team found that the Limoges-based porcelain manufactory “had the same vision and commitment to excellence,” as Louis XIII, Pressat said, adding that the company “was ready to really do something that they’ve never done before.”

Beyond that, Pressat identified similarities between the Limoges soil used by J.L. Coquet and the terroir inherent in selecting the finest grapes for Louis XIII’s ultra-luxury cognac. “They are very well known for their talent to transform a piece of… raw material into an art piece, literally,” Pressat said. “We had very, very clear ambition, and we knew exactly what we wanted in terms of design.”

The collection reaches a rare level of exceptional quality after years of trial and error, design innovation, and testing to meet the high standards set by both companies. Each piece takes about four weeks to create, with roughly 40 artisans involved throughout the process, Pressat said. 

The intensive undertaking was deeply collaborative but not without its struggles to develop the ideal shape, look, and material for the collection, she adds. 

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the collection is the innovation behind the “Soil is our Soul” offering, which took a 3D-printed scan of the chalky soil and texture of the Le Domaine du Grollet earth used by J.L. Croquet and transformed it into an imprint on porcelain. Remarkably, the “same texture, same feeling” of the region’s soil is translated into an artifact designed to be both seen and felt, Pressat notes. 

Each piece in the “Soil is Our Soul” collection is completely glazed, then lightly and selectively brushed, leaving behind textured porcelain that delivers a striking depth of field (for a price: The collection starts at $500, and the entire set costs $3,400).

On the back of each piece, a proprietary J.L Coquet laser-engraving technique leaves behind a subtle three-hoop design, a nod to the chestnut wood hoops of LOUIS XIII tierçons. “That’s the beauty …of those kinds of pieces,” Pressat said, calling the collection “a perfect blend…between history and innovation.” 

Equally delicate and impossibly precise is the Art de La Table’s “Light of Time” collection, with prices starting at $500 and going up to $4,000 for the complete set.

The collection aims to juxtapose the depths of Louis XIII’s cellars by using a first-of-its-kind porcelain carving technique that reveals light beneath each piece. The effect acts as a mirror of sorts, nodding to the way a crystal glass illuminates the golden amber hue of Louis XIII cognac, Pressat says.

Each selection is finished with an intricate, hand-painted copper lining, another nod to imperceptible craftsmanship and a difference you can see (and feel). “Aesthetically, it’s stunning…. everything is in the details,” Pressat says. 

Designed for more than just viewing, the collection will soon make its debut on the tables of some of the world’s finest restaurants, as Louis XIII plans to collaborate with a selection of top chefs globally on menus to be paired with the striking tableware collection. 

And just as the historic French design house Hermès initially started by crafting leather saddles, Pressat sees Louis XIII gradually expanding into categories beyond tableware — while still keeping Cognac at the heart of the brand. “We want to innovate and to create new moments,” Pressat says. “But one condition is that the liquid won’t change. It’s going to be there in the next century.”