Long Oval Serving Plate with Fruit

In Italian we call this a sperlunga — a long, narrow oval plate made for serving. At about 55 cm, it's big enough to lay out a whole fish, a row of bruschette, or a spread of antipasti. Our artisans in Vietri sul Mare shape each one by hand and paint it freehand.

The rim is painted in a rich teal-green with a slightly marbled texture, and around the inner edge there's a garland of hand-painted fruit — yellow lemons, red apples, golden oranges, and clusters of purple grapes, all linked by dark green leaves and small blue flourishes. The centre is left white, which gives you space to actually use the plate and lets the fruit border frame whatever you're serving.

People buy these for the table, and they really do work well for long dishes — grilled fish, rows of mozzarella and tomato, skewers, that kind of thing. But plenty of customers also hang them on the wall or lean them on a shelf as a decorative piece. The elongated shape makes a nice change from the usual round plates.

Every leaf, every lemon, every grape is painted by hand without stencils. If you compare two of these side by side, you'll see the differences in how the fruit is arranged and how the colours sit. That's the mark of real Vietri ceramics.