8 Favorites: Plain and Fancy Ceramic Seder Plates for Passover

Don’t forget the bitter herbs. Passover is a teaching event by way of two nights of seders—feasts, which begin this year on April 1. The Jewish holiday recounts the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt 3,000 years ago and celebrates freedom. The tools used to tell the story are six symbolic dishes, including the aforementioned eye-watering greens, as well as haroset (a fruit and nut mix that symbolizes building mortar), and matzoh (an unleavened bread because the Israelites had no time to wait for yeast to rise).

Initially arranged in wicker baskets, these foods are now presented on trays and platters. Of late a number of ceramic artists and design studios have created their own customized versions ready to play a starring role on Passover tables. Here are eight standouts.

Above: Catherine Rex of Rex Design in Costa Mesa California, offers an illustrated, handmade Blue Seder Plate, $300, that can be customized with an inscription. Above: Alef Objects’ porcelain Typographic Seder Plate spells out the six symbolic Passover seder foods in Hebrew. Made in Tel Aviv in a limited edition of 70, each is $185 from The Jewish Museum Shop in NYC. Above: Brooklyn ceramic artist Isabel Halley’s gold-rimmed porcelain Seder Plate, $425, comes with six gold-rimmed pinch pots that fit into inscribed indentations on the platter. Above: Via Maris’s two-piece, slip-cast stoneware Seder Plate is currently on sale for $299, marked down from $345. Read about the company in The Modern Menorah and Other Uncommonly Chic Judaica. Above: Decorated with spring blossoms and topped with six companion bowls, The Flowers of Israel Seder Plate by The Israel Museum is $268 from the Jewish Museum Shop of NYC. Above:The Illustrated Seder Plate, $300, is another Rex Design made in Costa Mesa, California. Above: Ceramic artist Yaara Nir Kachlon’s Passover Plate, $150, is handmade of white clay slip in her studio in southern Israel. N.B.: Terrain offers a similar Scalloped Ceramic Seder Set in ivory for $68. Above: Il Buco Vita’s hand-painted Italian terracotta Flora Seder Plate is shown here in Marrone, a color made in collaboration with Shoppe Amber Interiors. It’s currently on sale from Il Buco Vita for $194, regularly $228.

Go to The Contemporary Kiddush Cup for another Passover table future heirloom.

Also take a look at 8 Finds for the Happening Jewish Holiday Table.