It's a tale as old as time, reminiscent of Greek mythology, Shakespeare and even contemporary Atwood-esque yarns. Yet this South African story is one that few of us have heard.
Three hundred and three years ago, Maria Mouton, a Huguenot refugee to the Cape, and her lover, a slave named Titus of Bengal, were put to death at the Castle of Good Hope for killing Mouton's husband, Frans Jooste.
Another slave on Jooste's Bartholomeus Klip farm, Fortuijn of Angola, was also executed for the murder.
According to records, the two men had been trying to rescue Mouton from an incident of domestic abuse when Jooste was killed.
Thanks to Cape Town designer Michael Chandler, this historical nugget is set to become dinner-table conversation. Quite literally.
Chandler, an avid heritage researcher and ceramic devotee, has created a series of dinner plates to depict this true-life drama of love across culture, race and social standing.
And here's where the attractive blue-and-white crockery gets even more interesting. Chandler has based the design on the famed willow pattern - the most successful and replicated tableware illustration in history.
And not just because he has a thing for indigo-adorned pottery. "The story of Maria and Titus is amazingly similar to the ill-fated love affair that's depicted in the willow pattern," he says.
The century-old English creation (it's not actually Asian, as many people think), tells the story of the daughter of a wealthy Chinese man who falls in love with someone her father deems unacceptable because he comes from a lower social class. The sweethearts elope but are eventually discovered and executed by the girl's father. In sympathy, the gods transform the pair into birds - immortalised on side plates and platters in homes around the world.
Chandler's 21st-century update of the crockery tells the Bartholomeus Klip story with similar aesthetic devices. He's replaced the pagoda with a Cape Dutch farm house. There's Table Mountain and indigenous flora as decoration and he's even drawn guards tracking down Maria, Titus and Fortuijn.
"I've depicted the lovers as swallows," says Chandler. "Angolan swallows, actually. It's a little, poignant nod to Fortuijn, whose swallow glides in the background of the image."
• The tableware was launched at the Nederburg Wine Auction in Stellenbosch this weekend. A portion of the sale of every plate will be donated to an organisation that helps victims of domestic abuse. E-mail info@chandlerhouse.co.za
