Moor's Head Vase - Raya

Raya is a female testa di Moro that stands about 40 cm tall — one of our larger Moor's heads. What makes her different from the others in the collection is the cascading cluster of lemons and blue flowers sculpted onto the side of her head. Our artisans in Vietri sul Mare build these fruit details by hand, attaching each lemon and leaf individually before the piece goes into the kiln.

Her face is glazed in a smooth white with hand-painted features: dark eyebrows, detailed dark eyes, and soft golden lips. The turban is wrapped in white, and the crown on top carries blue ceramic spheres. She wears a yellow hoop earring and a necklace of large blue beads. The lemons tumble down one side with green leaves and blue flowers woven in — it is an unmistakable Amalfi Coast motif.

At this size, Raya is a real centrepiece. She works well on a wide shelf, a console table, or the floor beside a sofa. The top is open, so she can hold dried flowers or tall grasses, but the lemon detail already gives her plenty of visual interest on its own.

Every Raya is sculpted and painted entirely by hand. The exact arrangement of the lemons, the depth of the blue beads, and the facial expression will differ slightly from piece to piece. That is the mark of handmade work from Vietri sul Mare.