Stefano Ricci SR Octagon Porcelain Ashtray — Horses / Palladium

Stefano Ricci SR Octagon Porcelain Ashtray — Horses / Palladium

The horse has appeared in luxury objects for as long as luxury objects have existed. It ran across the walls of Lascaux seventeen thousand years ago. It pulled the chariots depicted on Greek friezes. It filled the paintings of Stubbs and Géricault. It organized the social hierarchies of every aristocratic tradition that placed horsemanship at the center of a gentleman's education. Stefano Ricci returns to the horse — here as a group, in motion — on a cigar ashtray that brings equestrian imagery to the center of the smoking table. The motif on this piece is not a single still portrait but Horses: movement, plurality, the energy of animals that have never been fully tamed.

The Horses

The Horses motif is rendered on fine porcelain with palladium details — the cool, precise finishing that suits the grey-silver tonal range of the subject. Horses in motion on a circular or octagonal surface have a natural energy: the movement of the animals and the geometry of the form work together rather than against each other. Palladium finishing reinforces the cool, clean quality of the composition without adding warmth that would compete with the subject.

Octagonal Format / 4 Cigar Rests

Four brass cigar rests at 25 × 25 cm make this a table piece designed for company — for the session at which four cigars are in play simultaneously and conversation is the context for the smoking. The octagonal format gives the ashtray a defined presence at table scale that a round piece of the same dimension does not quite achieve. The porcelain is dense enough to hold the rests firmly and the position securely.

Brass Cigar Rests / Palladium Finishing

The four brass cigar rests are finished in palladium — consistent with the ashtray's decorative details and the Horses motif they surround. They hold cigars at the correct angle and elevation between draws across the full length of any session.

Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.