Dust off your virtual paddles, dear readers! Across the pond, Christie’s and guest curator Petra Palumbo are offering an exquisite online fine dining auction featuring 55 unique lots. Each piece, ranging from Dior-designed plates to Chinese Export porcelain, provides hostesses (and hosts!) the opportunity to mix prints, patterns, and decades for a thoroughly elegant spread.

“I was asked by Christie’s to curate and style their online dining sale along with my wares,” says Scottish Highlands-based Petra. “The more I studied the lots I realised that the objects weren’t exclusive to the table and could be utilised throughout the home, that’s when I decided to create 3 different vignettes, taking you on a journey through the home.” A snug living room complete with a needlepoint corner inspires tea time while an al fresco setting encourages a garden breakfast.

Petra’s own creations, a delightful line of sustainable, patterned homewares, pair effortlessly with intricate Baccarat glass and grand silver candelabras. “There were so many unique pieces to play around with, I had such fun mixing prints and layering colour and not being too precious about matching everything perfectly,” notes Petra. A formal dinner setting featuring ornately decorated porcelain ‘Flora Danica’ table service and German silver pheasants receives a dose of humor with M&Ms loosely scattered about. “I love marrying the old and the new in an unexpected way and I hope my settings inspire people to have fun, be daring and try not to overthink it!” she emotes.

Indeed, there are many auction items that invite the bidder to invigorate their existing tabletop arsenal for a fun year of entertaining. The sale opens tomorrow, January 22nd, and closes January 29th and I’m quite certain you’ll want to come away with at least one pretty piece or set. To preview the lots, the Christie’s auction may be visited here.

If you are as enthusiastic a fan as I am of Petra’s charming painted glassware, I have excellent news. She will be opening her first shop in the Old Bank of Scotland building this summer in Beauly, Inverness-shire. For those of us staying stateside, her chic carafes (my favorite!) and many other selections can always be shopped on her website.

And now for a round of Muffy’s rapid fire favorites with Petra Palumbo. Ready, set, spill!

Candle: Any Bella Freud scented candles…love using the vessels as pen pots afterwards!
Cocktail: Margarita Picante 
Hostess Gift: One of our hand painted 1.3L jugs
Antique Store: Gardiner & Gardiner in Cromarty, Scotland
Travel Destination: Beirut 
Museum: V&A
Dinner Party Menu: Lebanese!

All images courtsey of CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2020