One day in tea ceremony class, my teacher brought his collection of antique tea bowls. Out of the dozens displayed, a beautiful black ceramic bowl caught my eye, and I casually picked it up to give it a good look. “Be careful with that one”, my teacher warned me, “it costs $80,000”. Needless to say, I put it down quickly (and gently).

The idea of spending $80,000 on a tea bowl is incomprehensible to me, but then again, I’m the type of person who’d rather buy a print of a Monet rather than the real thing (then again, I could never afford the real thing, but that’s beside the point). For some people, an $80,000 tea bowl is a work of art; to other people, if you pay more to insure your cups than your car, there’s something wrong…

Thankfully, the tableware from Ceramic of Victory Co., Ltd. manages to fuse artistic expression with functionality. The company believes that tableware plays an essential role in our daily lives, and their designs are straightforward and minimal. Their CoV series includes earthenware in simple, functional designs, in a wide spectrum of bright, cheerful colors. You’re guaranteed to pull them out time and time again, and if one of them breaks, relax…you won’t have an insurance inspector banging down your door, either.