The Wild Boar of Garrhan

How a dinner service for our French hunting lodge inspired Xavier Britain.

In the limestone hills above Penne, a medieval village in the Tarn, stands Garrhan, an eighteenth-century hunting lodge surrounded by meadows and woodland. The house sits near the Grésigne forest, once a royal hunting ground, where wild boar still roam and the local farmers continue to hunt them.

My family bought Garrhan in 2015. It had been empty for many years and needed extensive renovation. Over the next few years, my mother rebuilt the interiors and stripped away the exterior render to reveal the original stone. By 2017, we were finally spending holidays there, with plenty of family and friends coming to stay.

With so many guests and such a constant stream of entertaining, it was clear that Garrhan needed its own dinner service. We wanted something personal to the house, but practical enough for everyday family use.

Given the house's history and the wild boar in the surrounding woods, the design seemed obvious. Our friend David Urmston, a talented artist, drew a boar for us. We had his sketch reproduced on fine bone china, with a slender eau de nil rim. The colour suited the pale shutters, old stone and general character of the house.

We kept the design simple. The boar sits discreetly in the centre of each plate, and the coloured rim works just as well on a scrubbed wooden table as it does with Provencal tablecloths.

My mother was particular about the material. She wanted English fine bone china rather than porcelain, for its strength, lightness and translucency. It feels lovely to use, but is also well suited to a busy household.

So that is where Xavier Britain began. We commissioned eighteen dinner plates, pudding plates, soup bowls and side plates, all made in Stoke-on-Trent. They were intended for everyday use, dishwasher-safe and not to be kept in a cupboard for special occasions.

Garrhan is a busy family house, particularly in the summer when the house fills with grandchildren, friends and dogs. You're just as likely to find Anglo Irish treats like roast gammon and black pudding as you are croissants, Toulouse sausage or foie gras. The dishwashers never stop churning, and the plates never stop stacking.

The china is used for breakfast, lunch and supper, washed, stacked and put away, then brought out again for the next meal. And in nearly ten years, we haven't broken a single piece.

Considering how many people have used it, including plenty of children, I think that's a pretty good advertisement for English fine bone china.

We've since added eighteen mugs from our Classic Collection, in eau de nil, sky blue and blush pink, which match the original service perfectly.

It was this first commission that gave us the idea for Xavier Britain. We had enjoyed creating something specifically for Garrhan and wondered why more people didn't have china made for their own homes. A family crest, a monogram, a favourite drawing or simply a particular colour could all be used to create something personal.

It took us some time to find the right manufacturers in Stoke-on-Trent and work out how to offer bespoke china on a wider scale. In 2019, Xavier Britain was formally launched, offering English fine bone china through our own collections and bespoke commissions.

The wild boar service is still at Garrhan and still in daily use whenever we're there. It has served countless family lunches, birthday suppers and Christmas dinners, and looks just as good as it did in 2017.

It was the first dinner service we ever commissioned, and the reason Xavier Britain exists today.

Inspired by Garrhan? Discover Xavier Britain's bespoke fine bone china and how we can create a dinner service especially for your home.