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The Plates

The Buon Ricordo plates are a gift for customers who choose the local speciality of member restaurants. If temporarily out of stock they will be forwarded to customers by post.

Buon Ricordo plates are individually hand-decorated by the craftsmen of the Ceramica Artistica Solimene company in Vietri sul Mare, a family-run business on the Amalfi coast whose members have been potters for untold generations. Their cheerfully colourful naïf style captures the essence of each restaurant’s local speciality (members may change their option every five years), and the decoration is embellished with references to the restaurant, its local territory and products. The rim of each plate bears the name of the restaurant and the town or village it is in.

Today, just as in 1964, the plates are made from local clay from a quarry in Ogliara, a few kilometres from Vietri. The raw clay is worked and washed in water, then sieved and filtered to a soft, fairly dry consistency without any bubbles of air. The worked clay is used to make the plates, that are then dried and biscuit fired for the first time at 100°C. After biscuit firing they receive their first coat of slip and are decorated by hand by skilled craftsmen using a carbon “dusting” technique similar to that once used for Renaissance fresco painting. Once the plates have been decorated they are glazed and fired for a second time to fix their vivid colours. They are completely safe to use for eating because the materials all comply with strict regulations governing the production of tableware and are rapidly becoming a fashionable way to lay a decorative table with cheerfully colourful conversation pieces.

Ever since the Association’s inception its plates have attracted collectors, and in 1977 the Collectors’ Association was founded: this is completely independent from the Unione del Buon Ricordo, but our restaurant owners extend the hand of grateful friendship to its members.
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The current Buon Ricordo plates