Italian Ceramic Plates: Types, Sizes and Daily Use
Italian Ceramic Plates: Types, Sizes and Daily Use Read More »
Buying & CollectingThese guides are written in the workshop, between firings, by the people who make the pieces. They are here because the same questions come across the counter every week: is this painted by hand, why do two plates from one pattern cost different amounts, what happens to a glazed rim in a dishwasher, what is a testa di moro actually for. The answers are longer than a counter conversation allows.
Two shelves, not one long list
Everything here sits in one of two categories, and the split follows what you are trying to decide.
- History & Craft is for the piece in front of you: where the shapes and the colors come from, what Greek, Arab and Spanish Sicily each left behind, which towns make what, and what happens between wet clay and a finished surface. Start with the history of Sicilian ceramics or, if you want the making rather than the past, how a piece is actually made.
- Buying & Collecting is for the money: telling hand-painted from printed, judging a price, choosing between forms, getting a fragile object from Sicily to a house abroad, and keeping it intact once it is there. Start with the Caltagirone buyer’s guide, then the five checks for spotting an authentic piece.
Which one to read first
Choosing a gift with a deadline? The buyer’s guide alone will do. If the piece is already yours, the two practical ones are care and, for anything crossing an ocean, shipping to the USA. Buyers who are still working out what they are looking at usually need maiolica or porcelain first. Anyone about to buy from a screen rather than a shelf should read where to buy online before paying, not after.
The list below is not finished. We are working through the questions in the order they get asked, so a subject missing today is probably queued rather than ignored. If yours is not here, the workshop telephone still works: +39 0933 335277.
