The Best Home Gifts Under $100

The Butterfly Bowl is one of Nambé's earliest designs, drawn by Richard K. Thomas in 1967 and in production since. It is sand cast and hand polished from Nambé's own metal alloy, which holds temperature well: chilled, it keeps a dip or a salad cool on the table; warmed in the oven, it keeps food warm.

The 7 inch size is small, about 8.75 by 7.5 inches, and suits olives, nuts, a dip or a small salad. It looks like silver without needing silver polish, and it cannot shatter on a stone floor.

It must be washed by hand and dried at once. Skip it for a host whose table is all rustic stoneware; it is a mid-century piece and looks it.

The catch. Hand wash only, and the polished surface shows fingerprints.

IKEUCHI ORGANIC weaves its towels in Imabari, Japan's towel-making center, from GOTS organic cotton. This pair is its lightweight style: not the thick hotel pile most people expect, but a thinner towel that absorbs quickly and dries on the rail in hours rather than staying damp all day.

The maker built them to hold up to years of washing rather than to feel plush in the shop. They are OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Class 1 certified, the grade set for baby products, and woven in a facility the maker says runs on wind power. Each comes with a card tracing its cotton.

Skip them for someone who loves a heavy, fluffy towel. These are for the person who prefers linen to terry, or lives somewhere humid where thick towels never dry.

The catch. Thin by design; anyone expecting plush hotel towels will be surprised.

The Heritage dish has the scalloped handles that mark Le Creuset's Heritage line. It is dense stoneware with a glazed, nearly nonstick interior and an enamel exterior that resists scratches and stains. The maker says it can go in the freezer, microwave, oven, under the broiler and in the dishwasher.

At 12 by 9 inches and 4 quarts it takes a lasagna, a gratin, a crumble for eight or a tray of roast vegetables. The Sea Salt glaze is a soft grey-green that sits well beside white plates, which is why this is the easiest Le Creuset to give to someone whose kitchen you do not know.

Skip it for a cook who already owns a good 9 by 13 baker; they will not need a second. It is also heavy when full, as good stoneware is.

The catch. Heavy, and slightly smaller than the standard 9 by 13 inch pan many recipes assume.

Most cooks own a chef's knife and a paring knife and do everything in between with whichever is closer. A 6 inch utility knife fills that gap: sandwiches, shallots, trimming a chicken breast, slicing a lemon at the bar. Shun's Classic version is handmade in Japan with a VG-MAX steel core clad in 68 layers of Damascus steel and ground to a 16 degree edge.

The D-shaped Pakkawood handle suits left and right hands. Shun offers free sharpening and honing, which makes the gift last well beyond the first edge. It is the lightest way to give someone a proper Japanese knife.

Hard, thin Japanese steel chips if used on bone or frozen food, or put in the dishwasher. Skip it for someone rough with knives; a German knife is the more forgiving gift.

The catch. Hand wash only, and the hard edge chips on bone or frozen food.