Villeroy & BochLave Bleu Salad Plate, 9.25x1 in, Stoneware, Blue

Update - These plates may be dishwasher and microwave safe - but they are NOT oven-safe!If you like to warm your plates in the oven, forget it. They break, even in a warm oven. My second photo shows the result. At first I thought that I was just unlucky - but when I contacted the manufacturer, they informed me that these plates WILL break if used in an oven.Which makes them pretty much useless as far as I'm concerned - I like to serve hot food on hot plates!That is a great shame, because these are beautiful plates. But ultimately, a waste of money.Unless you eat nothing but salad.Here is my original review.These plates are very niceThe asymmetric shape gives them a hand-crafted appearance, the deep blue colour, combined with the speckled pattern from the reactive glaze and the "burnt" edge make these plates look as if they came from an artisan pottery.Fortunately, they don't have an artisan pottery price tag. I think that they are excellent value for money.My slight disappointment is because the speckled glaze is not a prominent on these side plates as it is on the dinner plates that I purchased at the same time. Maybe it would be on another batch - the manufacturer does say that no two plates will have exactly the same appearance. That, for me, is part of their charm.Sadly, one plate arrived broken, due to the absence of packing material in the bottom of the box. These side plates were sent from Amazon's German warehouse, while my matching dinner plates were sent from within the UK. If you read the reviews, you will see that many customers have mentioned breakages that came from the German warehouse.A minor inconvenience is that I now have to trudge into town to a UPS pick-up shop in order to return the broken plate for a refund. One would have thought that submitting a photo of the broken plate would have been sufficient.

How difficult can it be to purchase a decent plate? Do you choose a well known company that you have trusted in the past? To my utter consternation, it is more difficult than I had imagined. There was a well known company that I have purchased from in the past. What I found with that company is that some of their are made in China.Fortunately this plate is made in Portugal. They are of the highest quality. As for the glazing, again it is of the highest quality. I would also go further and say that they are works of art. I know have 2 plates,with another one on the way. They are of generous size which will satisfy a large appetite, but can also be used for a smaller appetite. As for the colour, they are exquisite.

A really good solid heavy plate/bowl. Surprised at the large size. Only quibble is there's a small scratch on one side so taken off a star but otherwise lovely. Used in both the microwave and dishwasher many times.

Nice dinner plate, with a gorgeous deep colourJust like the pictureI bought them to mix and match with my Denby rangeNice quality but I suspect more fragile than my Denby dinner plates

Beautiful as you would expect from V&B - ordered some more as just the right to replace a cupboard of tatty glassware and transition from glass to ceramic/pottery