In the galaxy of Alessi designers, Riccardo Dalisi is probably the most brilliant example of a poetic attitude to design. He lives in Naples and loves working in close contact with Neapolitan craftsmen. During the design process that led to the production of his Neapolitan coffeepot in the 1970s, he sent us several hundred prototypes, each one different from the last and gradually more and more expressive to the point of losing any functional appearance and becoming pieces of art. To celebrate this practice, which I believe is unparalleled in the history of design, we have chosen one of these works to produce a limited edition of 999 pieces. - Alberto Alessi

“Animation has a ‘methodological’ role. Free and extravagant forms are overturning all conventions and creating a magic space where anything can happen, where it is possible to catalyse a process of ‘pure research’ upon function or form.” - Riccardo Dalisi.

Awarded a Compasso d’Oro in 1981, the process followed by Riccardo Dalisi in designing his Neapolitan coffee pot was one of the richest and most poetic in the history of Alessi. Beginning with a socio-anthropological analysis and culminating in a process of hyperbolic “animation” of the traditional forms of the Neapolitan cuccuma pot, it led to the creation of a multitude of characters, from sacred to profane. Saints, knights, imaginative chimeras and unusual coffee pots, such as this one proposed for Alessi’s centenary: an enchanting work of art and design, surrounded by an explosion of stars among a small solitary heart, stands out.