Handpainted Ceramic Cake Stand with Lemons

In Italian we call this an alzatina — a footed stand that lifts fruit, cakes, or pastries off the table. Our artisans in Vietri sul Mare shape each one on the wheel and paint it entirely freehand, so every piece has its own character.

The base and bowl are covered in a deep cobalt blue glaze, and all around you'll see hand-painted lemons on their branches with green leaves and small white curling vines. The rim has a beautiful ruffled edge — wavy and organic, not perfectly even, because it's shaped by hand. A yellow band runs around the inside where the bowl meets the pedestal base, and the base itself carries the same lemon pattern.

At about 30 cm across, it's the right size for a cake, a pile of fruit, or a display of biscotti after dinner. Plenty of customers also use it as a centrepiece with nothing on it at all — it holds its own on a table. The piece belongs to our Piazzetta Collection, which takes its blue-and-yellow palette from the little squares and churches you see along the Amalfi Coast.

As with all our ceramics, slight variations in brushwork and colour are normal. They mean a real person painted your piece, not a machine.