French country decor has a dark register that is rarely discussed — the navy shutters, the indigo-dyed linen, the deep blue-grey of old ironwork on white plaster walls. The Navy Poppy is a handmade ceramic wall flower from the France Collection, kiln-fired in Toronto in a navy glaze that is deep, specific, and the most unexpected piece in a collection built primarily on warm tones. It is the color that French Vogue noticed and that Chive is continuing to interpret as an endorsement.

The dark counterpoint in a palette French Vogue chose to feature

The France Collection is not a monochrome palette of pink — it is a range from the deepest navy through burnt orange and blush to the palest milk teal. The Navy Poppy is the dark end: the blue that reads as committed and architectural in a collection that otherwise tends toward soft and romantic. On a wall of France Collection pieces, the Navy Poppy is the piece that prevents the arrangement from becoming too sweet. On a wall alone it is the most bold individual statement in the collection. The poppy form in navy is not botanically accurate — poppies do not come in navy — but the France Collection is about the palette of a specific place, not the botanical accuracy of its colors.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden carries the France Collection. The New York Botanical Garden stocks it. Longwood Gardens carries it. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show awarded Chive the 5-star booth award — the highest rating given — for 13 consecutive years. Botanical gardens in the greater New York area and Pennsylvania have independently decided this collection belongs in their shops. Chive has been designing and making ceramic flowers in Toronto since 1999.

A gift for someone whose walls are already warm and need the dark counterpoint

The Navy Poppy ships in a Chive gift box. It hangs with one screw in 90 seconds. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden carries it. The person with warm walls receives the dark botanical element that makes everything else in the room read as more considered by contrast.