Puiforcat's wooden cutlery set designed by Jasper Morrison

Puiforcat wooden cutlery by Jasper Morrison: a knife, a spoon, a fork — Table knife, spoon and fork, €150 each, by Jasper Morrison, for Puiforcat

(Image credit: Neil Godwin)

Feast your eyes upon this surprising and delightful collaboration between British super normalist, Jasper Morrison, and the legendary French silver maison Puiforcat.

Your eyes do not deceive you; the utensils are not silver, but cherry wood (or Sakura) from Japan, where they are manufactured and finished with the fuki-urushi lacquering technique to protect and enhance the natural properties of the wood. The lacquer is applied with a cloth, and has the dual purpose of giving the material a protective, antibacterial layer, yet still allowing the wood to breathe.

Table Knife

Table Fork

Table Spoon

If your gut response towards the idea of wooden cutlery is marred by the mealy mouthed sensation of bamboo disposable types, take it from us: this is a very different experience. The knife cuts properly, for a start. And why, you might well ask, would Puiforcat take this turn into a new material with its powerful heritage rooted in the precious metal of silver? The maison answers: ‘It reflects a judicious extension of our creative repertoire, putting forth a contemporary and durable aesthetic blend of form and function, design, and quality of use.’ Tuck in.

puiforcat.com

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Hugo is a design critic, curator and the co-founder of Bard, a gallery in Edinburgh dedicated to Scottish design and craft. A long-serving member of the Wallpaper* family, he has also been the design editor at Monocle and the brand director at Studioilse, Ilse Crawford's multi-faceted design studio. Today, Hugo wields his pen and opinions for a broad swathe of publications and panels. He has twice curated both the Object section of MIART (the Milan Contemporary Art Fair) and the Harewood House Biennial. He consults as a strategist and writer for clients ranging from Airbnb to Vitra, Ikea to Instagram, Erdem to The Goldsmith's Company. Hugo recently returned to the Wallpaper* fold to cover the parental leave of Rosa Bertoli as global design director, and is now serving as its design critic.