Serving Tray

Each handle is solid teak, oiled, with the grain running along it, and a groove cut in its inner face takes the slab with a hair of play, so it goes in by hand. The underside of the slab stands clear of the table, so fingers slide under the tray from the long sides. Along the outer face of each handle a recess is routed in just above the base: the finger grip, placed where the hand closes.

White quartz is an engineered stone, not quarried, and we say so. It is chosen here because it is dense, non-porous and white all the way through, so coffee and oil do not mark it and a chip would not show a different colour. It is also the right weight: a tray that carries a teapot and two cups should be heavier than its load, so that it stays level in the hands.

It is a breakfast tray and a bedside tray, and on a bed it sits flat on the covers because the handles are the feet. The teak warms in the hand and the quartz stays cool under the cup. On the sheet the slab is drawn out of its handles, because that is how the tray is put together.