Rhombe: How One Diamond Relief Carries Across a Whole Table

Most tableware patterns live on one kind of object: a plate border, a cup rim, a printed band. Rhombe from Lyngby Porcelæn does something less common. It takes a single diamond relief and carries it from dinner plates to a vase, a two-tier cake stand and a set of steel cutlery. This piece looks at where that motif came from, how it changed on its way into the present series, and what a repeated pattern does for a table that is built up slowly.

From printed decal to raised relief

Lyngby Porcelæn has made Danish porcelain since 1936, the year the fluted Lyngby Vase first appeared. The house language has always leaned on form rather than ornament: white bodies, clean profiles, and surface interest that comes from the shape itself. Rhombe fits that language, but its source is an archive pattern rather than a new sketch.

The diamond motif was first used on an older Lyngby range called Danild. There it was applied as a decal, a printed transfer laid onto the glaze. When the Copenhagen studio Karakter Copenhagen reworked the idea for the Rhombe series, they changed the method rather than the motif. The rhombus is no longer printed on the porcelain. It is pressed into the form as a relief, so the pattern is made of the same white material as the plate it sits on.

That is a bigger shift than it sounds. A decal is a picture of a pattern; a relief is a physical surface. Because of that, the design and the pattern on the Rhombe pieces are not identical to the archive originals, and the series stands as its own thing rather than a reissue. You read the old motif in it, but you feel it with your fingertips and in the way light crosses the facets.

Why a relief works in white

In white porcelain, a printed pattern does the visual work through contrast. A relief has no contrast of its own. It depends on light, which means it changes through the day. In a low morning light from the side, the facets cast small shadows and the rhombus grid becomes sharp. Under an overhead pendant in the evening, it softens into a texture that is easier to sense than to see.

The Rhombe Dinner plate Ø27 cm white shows this best. It is 27 cm across and 2.5 cm high, weighs 0.91 kg, and is handmade in porcelain. The relief sits on the rim, which leaves the well of the plate plain for food. That division matters. The pattern frames a meal without competing with it, and a plate of green salad or dark braised meat reads clearly against the smooth centre. It is dishwasher and microwave safe, which is part of why the series is pitched as everyday tableware and not as something kept for holidays.

Carrying the motif beyond the plate

A pattern that only exists on plates stays on the table. Rhombe goes further, and each piece has to translate the same diamond into a different shape and, in one case, a different material.

The vase

The Rhombe Vase H25 cm white takes the relief onto a vertical surface. On a plate you look down at the pattern; on a vase you see it side on, so the facets stack up the body and catch light along the height of the piece. At 25 cm tall it holds a single branch or a few stems, and it stands well empty. Placed on a sideboard near the dining table, it links the room to the table without needing flowers to do it.

The cake stand

The Rhombe Etagere Ø27 cm white stacks two tiers, 23 cm and 27 cm in diameter, on a slim metal stem with a ring at the top. It stands 27 cm high and weighs 1.38 kg. It is glazed white porcelain, and the larger tier matches the diameter of the dinner plate, so the two read as members of one family when set side by side. Note that the etagere is not dishwasher safe and should be washed by hand.

The cutlery

The most telling step is the move into metal. The Rhombe Cutlery set steel 16 pcs. is made from recycled steel and holds four each of knife, fork, spoon and teaspoon. The rhombus appears on every handle as a low relief, the same raised treatment used on the porcelain. The set weighs 0.148 kg and is dishwasher safe. Rhombe also includes a steel cake slicer, 25.5 cm long, a natural partner for the etagere.

Steel catches light differently from glazed porcelain: it reflects rather than shades. On the handle, the relief turns into small points of brightness. Laid beside a Rhombe plate, the knife and fork echo the rim without copying it, which is about as much coherence as a table can take before it starts to look staged.

The range at a glance

What consistency does for a table over time

The practical value of a repeated motif shows up years after the first purchase. Most households do not buy a complete service in one go. They start with plates, add bowls when a set breaks or a family grows, pick up a serving piece for a birthday. With a range that keeps one clear motif, each later piece slots in without a second thought about whether it matches.

The relief also ages well as a choice. Because it is white on white, it does not tie the table to a particular colour scheme. Linen in ochre one year and grey the next will both work. Glassware from another maker, wooden boards and handmade bowls sit comfortably next to it, since the pattern is quiet enough to share the table.

There is a further benefit in the cutlery. Steel and porcelain usually come from separate traditions and rarely talk to each other. When the knife handle repeats the rim of the plate, the place setting reads as one decision rather than a collection of separate ones. That is especially useful on a table that is otherwise mixed, because one consistent thread is enough to hold it together.

A sensible way to build it: start with dinner plates and cutlery, since those set the rhythm at every place. Add the etagere when you host often enough to want a centrepiece that also serves, and bring in the vase last, where it can carry the motif off the table and into the room. For a step-by-step setting with spacing and light, see our guide to dressing a table for four with Rhombe.

A pattern that stays in production

Rhombe is Lyngby Porcelæn's everyday series, and like the Lyngby Vase it stays in continuous production. That is what turns a pattern into a range you can live with: replacements and additions remain possible, so the table grows instead of being replaced. The diamond came out of the archive as a printed decoration; in Rhombe it has become a surface you can hold, repeated in porcelain and steel. To see the plates, bowls, cups and vases together, browse the full Lyngby Porcelæn collection.