Licensing Hotline: Dinnerware Reveals Secrets of Pistoulet

Jana Kolpen, author/illustrator of The Secrets of Pistoulet: An Enchanted Fable of Food, Magic, and Love (Stewart Tabori & Chang, 1996), is working with Pfaltzgraff to create a line of dinnerware. The products, to be introduced late this year, will reflect the look and themes of the 72-page fable/cookbook hybrid (designed and with photographs by Mary Tiegreen), which contains pull-out recipes, letters and maps. "It's a book from the heart," Kolpen said. "I believe [Pfaltzgraff] can transform the hope that one gets from reading Pistoulet to the table via dinnerware."

"It just seemed like a perfect match for our brand," said

Marsha Everton, Pfaltzgraff's president and CEO. "The table is the emotional epicenter of the home, and dinnerware is this artifact that sits in the middle of all these rituals and traditions of the table." Pfaltzgraff will convey the Pistoulet story through product packaging, by creating items such as spice and recipe boxes that reflect the story's theme of hope, and by bringing books into stores for sale or giveaways. The company is in talks with other manufacturers about additional items such as tea kettles, soup pots and table linens.

STC hopes to use the publicity generated by the dinnerware, according to Kolpen, to re-energize marketing for the book, which has sold 125,000 copies to date. Kolpen and Pfaltzgraff may expand the product line to include Pistoulet's sequel, The Legend of the Villa della Luna, as well as a third book in development.