This small still life brings together a few kitchen utensils placed on a table, in a rigorous, almost geometric arrangement. These household items, taken from Chardin's own kitchen, are found in many of this painter's works. A few major lines punctuate this orderly composition with the greatest economy of means: the horizontal plane of the table meets the vertical plane of the pestle and the circle of the copper cauldron. As in La Raie (The Ray) (Louvre Museum), Chardin uses the subject of the knife placed at an angle on the edge of the table to create an effect of depth.

Considered the pendant of La Table de Cuisine (The Kitchen Table) in the Louvre Museum, this oil on wood is the result of a constant search for simplicity. After a first period marked by the creation of still life works close to the more ambitious Nordic compositions of the 17th century, Chardin reduced his compositions to the essential, echoing a reflection on his profession as a painter.

Diderot was an admirer of Chardin, praising this superb craftsmanship and noting during the 1767 Salon: “It has incredible vigour of colour, in a general harmony with a tangy and true effect, beautiful shapes, enviably enchanting execution, delicious in its assortment and layout ”.