During the Second World War, a small miracle occurred in the world of design: the American decorator and designer Ernestin Virden Kannon met the young architect Matteo D’Agostino in Ravello. Between the two is immediately personal understanding and creative magic. In 1948, they founded the “Ernestine” ceramics factory based in Vietri.

Design and form are the stylistic figures of the two protagonists: Ernestin, with his watercolor technique, gives life to a series of highly modern decorative motifs, influenced by Japanese calligraphy; Matteo, heir to a family of ceramic producers from Salerno, is the creator of new shapes and unusual interior designs. Together, they renew the Vietri ceramic tradition and conquer foreign markets, especially the American one, becoming already in the 1950s one of the leading factories of industrial design in Italy. Years of splendor and glamor as royal families and personalities such as Jacqueline Kennedy are among the clientele.

The couple “was soon joined by the young German ceramic engineer, Horst Simonis, thanks to whom the factory became a veritable center for research and experimentation on lead-free colors and glazes.