The Interview: Shax Riegler and Dish

Shax Riegler is a journalist, scholar, and collector who is fascinated by the decorative arts including how we live with and among them in our modern life.  In his work toward a Ph.D. from the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture and as features editor at House Beautiful, he has spent years researching, writing and teaching about things that are both beautiful and useful.

His book, Dish: 813 Colorful, Wonderful Dinner Plates (Artisan Books, October 2011, Hardcover, $35.00), is a beautiful large-format book filled with color photographs and fascinating text that showcases how for centuries we have used our dinner plates to add expression and decoration to our dinner tables.  Organized thematically, Dish combines photography with stories of legendary manufacturers like Meissen, Wedgwood and Limoges, how artists like Monet, Picasso and Cindy Sherman designed and produced their own dishes, how studio-made pottery remains a contemporary dishware trend, and about the 100 most popular dish patterns and their enduring appeal.  There is also practical advice about collecting, storing, repairing and cleaning our dishes.

Shax Riegler knows better than anyone how the functional and the beautiful come together in our dinner plates.