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There are brands you carry because they sell well. And then there are brands you carry because you can't imagine the shop without them.
Bordallo Pinheiro is firmly in the second category.
We've stocked it at Villarosa Maison since almost the beginning, and it remains one of the pieces customers pick up first, put down reluctantly, and often come back for. There's something about it — the sculptural green leaves, the painted detail, the sheer playfulness of a jug shaped like a squirrel — that stops people mid-browse. It doesn't matter if they've never heard of Bordallo Pinheiro before. They know immediately that they want it.
If you've been searching for Bordallo Pinheiro in NZ, you've found one of the few places that actually stocks it in depth. Here's what we have, and why it's worth every cent.
Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro was Portugal's most celebrated caricaturist when he opened his pottery in Caldas da Rainha in 1884. His illustrator's eye gave him an unusual approach to ceramics — he borrowed shapes straight from the natural world and rendered them with wit and precision. Cabbages, sardines, frogs, insects, woodland animals. The factory still operates on the same site, still using many of the original moulds, still finishing the most intricate pieces by hand.
Over 140 years later, the brand has become what the industry calls a "love brand" — the kind of thing people discover once and become quietly devoted to for the rest of their lives..
The cabbage ware is the heart of the range, and we stock it more extensively than almost anyone else in New Zealand. Every piece is hand-painted in Caldas da Rainha — that vivid, layered green that photographs beautifully and looks even better on an actual table.
The Cabbage Dinner Plate (26.5cm, $67.95) is the entry point for most customers. It's the piece that works equally well as a single statement plate or the start of a full table setting. The Cabbage Plate (19cm, $44.95) is the one we recommend for side plates or cheese boards — at that price, buying four or six makes a genuinely impactful table for well under $300.
For those building a proper collection, the Cabbage Charger Plate (30.5cm, $137.95) is extraordinary — the kind of piece that anchors a table setting the way a beautiful tablecloth does. The Oval Platter comes in two sizes (37.5cm at $133.95 and 43cm at $219.95), and the larger one is genuinely show-stopping for a shared meal.
The Cabbage Cake Stand (31cm, $219.95) deserves its own mention. It is, objectively, one of the most beautiful cake stands ever made. A pavlova on that stand at a summer table is a memory people take home with them.
Rounding out the cabbage range: the Milk Jug ($94.95), the Sauceboat ($109.95), the Olive Dish ($139.95), the 0.4L Tureen ($149.95), and the 17.5cm Bowl ($78.95). Each piece works alone; together, they build something that feels like a genuine heirloom collection.
Not everyone is drawn to the cabbage green. The Hunting Range offers a different palette — deeper, earthier tones with hand-painted deer motifs that feel very at home in a New Zealand setting.
The Hunting Deer Plate (24cm, $94.95) has a wonderful rustic quality to it, and the Hunting Deer Mug ($123.95) is one of the most characterful mugs we stock. It's the mug for someone who has strong opinions about what they drink their morning coffee from — which, in our experience, is more people than you'd think.
The Garden of Insects range is where Bordallo Pinheiro really shows off. These are not tableware pieces — they're sculptural objects that happen to be functional. Each pot is modelled around a garden creature with extraordinary detail: the Snail Pot, the Ladybug Pot, and the Bee Pot (each $159.95) are hand-crafted and hand-painted with the same care as the original 19th-century pieces.
They work beautifully as plant pots, as vases, or simply displayed on a shelf or windowsill. Customers who buy one almost always come back for another. They're also one of the most reliably successful gifts we sell — distinctive, considered, and genuinely unlike anything you'll find elsewhere in NZ.
The most common question we get is where to begin. Our honest answer: start with a plate.
The 19cm Cabbage Plate at $44.95 is the lowest-risk entry point — beautiful enough to use immediately, inexpensive enough to buy a few of. From there, add a dinner plate, then a platter when the opportunity presents itself. Most of our customers build their collection gradually over months or years, adding a piece here and there, mixing it with other tableware rather than trying to match everything.
Bordallo Pinheiro is very forgiving in that regard. The cabbage ware mixes beautifully with plain white plates, with La Rochere glassware, with linen napkins. It doesn't demand to be the centrepiece — though it usually becomes one anyway.
Villarosa Maison is at 62 Montgomery Square, Nelson — open in-store, and online at villarosanz.co.nz with delivery throughout New Zealand. Our Bordallo Pinheiro range changes as pieces sell through, so if you've had your eye on something specific, it's worth not leaving it too long.
We're also happy to answer questions about specific pieces, care, or which items we're expecting back in stock. Get in touch — we genuinely love talking about this stuff.
