In this work some Renaissance lustre decorated ceramics have been examined. Our attention was directed to lustre which is a thin decorative metallic film applied on the surfaces of previously glazed ancient pottery. Some 16th century lustre ceramics shards from Deruta, Umbria (Italy) have been analysed by small angle X-ray scattering in order to characterise the dimension of the metal nanocrystals forming the thin lustre layer. This technique appeared to be a powerful tool to characterise lustre films nanostructure and may be successfully used for this purpose together with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Furthermore, SAXS measurements are extremely suitable for the determination of polydispersity and average interparticle distance. The lustre surfaces have been also analysed by scanning electron microscopy plus X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDX) in order to identify the metals present (silver, copper or both of them) and to establish copper/silver ratios. From the comparison between SAXS results and compositional data, it was possible to conclude that copper particles are smaller than the silver ones. We have evidenced how the microtexture as well as the chemical composition of the lustre layers are responsible for the gold or red colour typical of the lustre films. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.