Nerva Ceramica · Lucca · since 2009
Twelve pieces, thrown in Lucca
A short range of stoneware for the table. Nothing is cast, nothing is bought in, and nothing is listed here until it has come out of the kiln and been weighed.
No. 14Serra bowl — chalk€68
- Thrown on the wheel
- Fired to 1280 °C
- Lead-free glaze
- Dishwasher safe
- Packed in straw
- Sent within 3 days
02
Where most people begin
Three to start a table
Buy one of these and you will know within a week whether the weight suits your hands. Most of our customers come back for the other two.
03
Alzaia jug · No. 10
Weight you notice when you lift it
A litre jug comes off the wheel at 740 grams. Thinner than that and it chips at the lip; heavier and nobody reaches for it twice. We settled on the number in 2014 and have not moved it.
- Capacity
- 1.0 litre to the shoulder
- Weight, empty
- 740 g ± 25 g
- Glaze
- Bone, matt inside and out
04
Pietra platter · No. 05
A glaze that keeps the throwing lines
Salt glaze pools where the wall thickens, so the spiral left by the fingers stays legible after firing. It is the reason two platters out of the same batch never match, and the reason we photograph each one before it is packed.
Every platter is weighed, measured and photographed on the bench it was trimmed on. The picture you see on the entry is the platter that will arrive.
05
Four passes, eleven weeks
Wheel, dry, bisque, glaze
A bowl is touched on four separate days, with the kiln between the last two. Nothing about that can be hurried, which is why the shelf is short.
iThrown, one day
Eight kilos of Tuscan stoneware body is wedged by hand and thrown in a single morning. A good morning yields fourteen bowls; a bad one, four.
iiDried, ten days
Pieces stand on open shelves until the clay lightens from slate to bone. Rush it and the foot cracks on the way into the kiln.
iiiFired twice, eleven weeks apart
A bisque at 980 °C, then the glaze firing at 1280 °C. The kiln is filled eleven times a year and opened only once it is cool enough to touch.
06
Sent back to us, unprompted
What they say after a year
I bought two bowls to see whether they would survive a household with teenagers. They are in the dishwasher four times a week and the glaze has not dulled once.
Giulia T.Serra bowl, chalk · bought 2024
The jug arrived heavier than I expected and that turned out to be the point. It pours without dribbling, which no jug I have owned has managed.
Marco R.Alzaia jug, bone · bought 2025
I ordered a platter that was listed as sold out and was told plainly it would be eleven weeks. It was eleven weeks. I have no complaints about anything that honest.
Hanne S.Pietra platter, salt · bought 2025
Carriage free over €180
Start with one piece
The shelf is short on purpose. If what you want has gone, leave your address on the entry and we will write to you the day it comes out of the kiln — no list, no newsletter, one message.
