LOUIS XIII launched Art de la Table in October 2025, a hand-crafted porcelain collection made with J.L Coquet, limited to 750 sets priced from £400.
LOUIS XIII just did something it’s never done before. After 150 years of being known exclusively for what’s in the bottle, the legendary cognac house is launching tableware. Real, actual plates and cups. And not just any plates, we’re talking museum-quality porcelain that costs more than most people’s monthly rent.
The Art de la Table collection marks the brand’s first venture beyond spirits. It’s a big swing, and honestly? It makes sense. You don’t spend £3,000 on a bottle of cognac only to serve it on whatever plates you grabbed at IKEA.
Known as both the “King of Cognac” and the “Cognac of Kings, “LOUIS XIII has spent over a century showing up at the kinds of events that make it into history books. Now they’re extending that presence from what you drink to what you eat off of.
A Legacy Forged at History’s Most Distinguished Tables
For more than a century, LOUIS XIII has been there for the big moments. Royal banquets at Versailles. Dinners with Queen Elizabeth II and President Kennedy. The kind of occasions where someone’s taking notes for the history books.
These aren’t just marketing stories. This cognac has been present at some of the most important gatherings of the past 150 years. And now, with the porcelain collection, LOUIS XIII is trying to bottle that same sense of occasion. You can’t time-travel to Versailles, but you can set your table like you’re there.
The move into tableware isn’t by chance. LOUIS XIII has always been about moments worth remembering. The cognac itself takes a century to make; it’s literally designed for the biggest celebrations of your life. Adding plates to that equation just completes the picture.
Exceptional Craftsmanship in Every Detail
Each set includes six pieces: a large plate, a soup plate, a dessert plate, a bowl, a tea set, and a coffee set. That’s everything you need for a proper multi-course meal, from appetisers through coffee.
Here’s where it gets serious. Each piece takes three to four weeks to make. Forty artisans at the House of J.L. Coquet in Limoges, France, work on every set. That’s not assembly line production, that’s forty people who’ve spent years learning their specific craft, all touching your plates before they get to you.
Every single piece is individually numbered. Not stamped with a serial number by machine, actually numbered as part of the production process. It’s the kind of detail that transforms tableware into something you register with your insurance company.
The collection launches in October 2025, exclusively at the LOUIS XIII Boutique at Harrods. Prices start at £400 for a set of two pieces. That’s expensive, obviously. But in the world of luxury tableware, especially limited-edition, hand-numbered pieces from a cognac house and a prestigious porcelain manufacturer, it’s actually positioned as accessible.
Only 750 sets will be made worldwide. That number isn’t arbitrary. It’s the exact capacity of a LOUIS XIII tierçon, those century-old oak casks where the magic happens. Even the production numbers tell a story.
Anne-Laure Pressat, LOUIS XIII Executive Director, captures the essence of this new chapter: “These Art de la Table collections mark a new chapter in LOUIS XIII art de vivre. They are an invitation to discover or rediscover LOUIS XIII through a brand-new elevated experience.”
The Perfect Partnership: LOUIS XIII and J.L Coquet
LOUIS XIII didn’t just find some factory to stamp out plates with their logo. They partnered with J.L. Coquet, and if you know porcelain, you know that name. These are the people making tableware for Michelin-starred restaurants. When a three-star chef needs plates that won’t detract from their food, they call J.L. Coquet.
Founded in 1824 just outside Limoges, J.L. Coquet has been making porcelain for nearly two centuries. They’ve got the “Living Heritage Company” label from the French government and the “Protected Geographical Indication – Limoges Porcelain” certification. Those aren’t marketing badges; they’re official recognition that you’re doing something rare and doing it right.
The white porcelain they produce is translucent. Hold it up to the light, and you can see through it. That level of purity is extraordinarily difficult to achieve and even harder to maintain across large production runs.
Limoges itself is synonymous with fine porcelain, the way 1 is with sparkling wine. LOUIS XIII talks about finding the right “terroir” for porcelain the same way they talk about the chalky soil that grows their grapes. And when you’re looking for the best porcelain terroir in the world, you end up in Limoges.
The collaboration works because both houses are obsessed with the same things: raw materials, time, and craft. J.L. Coquet wasn’t just hired to execute someone else’s vision; they co-created these collections with LOUIS XIII. You can see it in the details.
Two Signature Collections: Terroir and Time Made Tangible
The launch includes two collections, each inspired by a different part of the cognac-making process. This isn’t vague inspiration; these designs are directly pulled from the actual materials and methods LOUIS XIII uses.
LOUIS XIII Soil is Our Soul: A Tactile Connection to Terroir
The first collection is called Soil is Our Soul, and it’s wild. The surface texture recreates the actual chalky limestone soil from Grande Champagne, the premier cru region where LOUIS XIII sources its grapes.
How did they do this? They used 3D scanning technology on the actual ground in Grande Champagne. Then they figured out how to reproduce that exact texture in porcelain using a specialised glazing technique applied by hand. When you pick up one of these plates, you’re touching a recreation of the soil that grew the grapes that became the cognac.
That’s either incredibly cool or slightly insane, depending on your perspective. Probably both.
Each piece has a laser-engraved fleur-de-lys. But look at the bottom, and you’ll find three hidden hoops, a reference to the structure of the tierçons, those oak casks where LOUIS XIII ages for up to a century. These details matter to people who understand what goes into making this cognac. For everyone else, they’re just nice-looking plates. But for cognac enthusiasts, every element tells part of the story.
LOUIS XIII Light of Time: Capturing the Essence of Maturation
The second collection, Light of Time, takes a different approach. Instead of texture, this one is all about how light moves across the surface.
Carved facets catch and reflect light, mimicking the iconic crystal LOUIS XIII decanter. If you’ve ever held a glass of LOUIS XIII up to the light and watched how it plays with the amber liquid inside, that’s what they’re recreating here. The porcelain itself becomes a study in light and shadow.
Each piece has hand-painted copper decoration. Not printed, not stamped, actually painted by hand. The copper is a reference to the copper stills used to distil the eaux-de-vie that will eventually become LOUIS XIII. Again, every design choice connects back to the cognac-making process.
The copper also adds warmth to the white porcelain. Pure white can feel cold and clinical. The copper brings in richness without overwhelming the clean lines of the design.
A Shared Philosophy: Where Tradition Meets Innovation
What makes this partnership work isn’t just that both companies make luxury goods. It’s that they think about luxury in the same way.
For LOUIS XIII, terroir is everything. The chalky soils of Grande Champagne, the specific microclimate, and the traditional growing methods all contribute to the final product. J.L. Coquet feels the same way about the kaolin-rich clay of Limoges. You can’t make this porcelain anywhere else and get the same results.
Then there’s time. LOUIS XIII cognac can age for up to a century. The cellar masters working today are making cognac for their grandchildren to bottle. J.L. Coquet’s timeline is shorter, weeks instead of decades, but the mentality is the same. You can’t rush quality. Each artisan does their part, and the piece moves to the next specialist when it’s ready, not when some production schedule says it should be done.
Both houses understand that mastery is earned, not bought. Baptiste Loiseau, LOUIS XIII’s Cellar Master, carries forward knowledge passed down through generations. J.L. Coquet’s artisans represent nearly 200 years of accumulated porcelain expertise. This isn’t knowledge you learn from a textbook. It’s hands-on experience refined over decades, passed from master to apprentice.
You can’t fake that depth of expertise. You can’t speed it up. And increasingly, you can’t find it, which is exactly what makes it valuable.
A New Ritual of Refined Dining
LOUIS XIII isn’t selling plates. They’re selling an experience, a ritual, a way of approaching meals that elevates everything around it.
The idea is that dining should be mindful. Not in some trendy meditation-app way, but in the sense of actually paying attention to what you’re doing. When you set the table with pieces this beautiful, you’re not just grabbing plates from the cabinet. You’re making a statement about how much the meal matters.
For people who already collect LOUIS XIII, these pieces offer something tangible beyond the liquid itself. You can’t keep the cognac forever; eventually, you drink it. But porcelain? That becomes an heirloom. These sets will be passed down, used for special occasions, and displayed as art.
The limited production of 750 sets worldwide matters here. This isn’t artificial scarcity for its own sake. The number connects to LOUIS XIII’s heritage, and the limitation ensures that ownership means something.
You’re not just buying nice plates, you’re joining a very small group of people who have access to them.
Celebrating the Launch: Exclusive Global Dinners
LOUIS XIII is launching the collection with exclusive dinners in Paris, 1, and London. These aren’t commercial events; they’re invitation-only gatherings designed to show how the collections work in their intended context.
The dinners will pair the porcelain with exceptional cuisine and, obviously, LOUIS XIII cognac. The point is to experience everything together: the visual appeal of the table setting, the food, the drink, the company. It’s about showing rather than telling.
These events matter because luxury goods often need to be experienced to be understood. You can describe the texture of Soil is Our Soul or the way light plays across Light of Time, but you can’t really convey it until someone holds the pieces in their hands.
The Enduring Legacy of LOUIS XIII
Since 1874, LOUIS XIII Cognac has been forever reborn from the precious eaux-de-vie of Cognac Grande Champagne, handed down through generations and artfully blended. Time is what makes this cognac what it is, not just the years it spends in casks, but the accumulated knowledge of everyone who’s worked on it across 150 years.
Guided by Cellar Master Baptiste Loiseau, LOUIS XIII isn’t just a product. It’s a living tradition. Each generation of cellar masters works for the future, knowing they’ll never taste the cognac they’re creating today. “Think a century ahead”, that’s the house motto, and it’s not hyperbole.
The Art de la Table collections carry that same philosophy forward. These aren’t trend-driven designs that will look dated in five years. They’re built on timeless principles: exceptional materials, expert craftsmanship, attention to detail, respect for tradition.
They also demand something from the owner. You don’t throw these in the dishwasher. You don’t stack them carelessly. You treat them with care because they deserve it, and because doing so makes the act of dining feel different. More intentional. More special.
For people who care about these things, and if you’re reading about £400 plates, you probably do, the LOUIS XIII Art de la Table collections are significant. They’re not just an expansion of a luxury brand into a new category. They’re a statement about what luxury can be when it’s done right: patient, purposeful, and built to last.
The collections launch at uk.louisxiii-cognac.com and exclusively at Harrods starting October 2025. Whether you’re a LOUIS XIII collector, a porcelain enthusiast, or just someone who appreciates exceptional craft, these pieces deserve a look. At minimum, they’ll make you think differently about what tableware can be. At best, they might change how you approach dining altogether.
