IT WAS ONCE an everyday, practical item, designed purely to keep your butter safe and at room temperature. But now the aesthetic butter dish movement is upon us. As the conversation about whole foods rages and the cost of living bites, a stick of butter is back in favour – its dish a way to add a quietly chic touch to your kitchen counter.

Gone are the cutesy floral numbers of years gone by, though; this season’s hits are anything but pedestrian. By far the most flamboyant is the Augarten ceramic butter dish, shaped and painted like a perfectly flaky croissant. If you’re looking for something more practical, the stripes-on-stripes trend, which has taken soft furnishings by storm, has also landed on butter dishes, with perfectly plaid offerings from Matilda Goad and Primark. Or, if you’re feeling cheeky, Anissa Kermiche – the woman who made bottom-shaped vases 2022’s must-have – has delivered the perfect talking-point dish in her trademark style.