Les Ottomans Hand Painted Ceramic Tortoise Candle Holder Made in Italy

We do not often list things that are still in production, but this tortoise walked into the loft and we were not about to turn him away. He is by Les Ottomans, the Italian house known for hand painted ceramics with a Turkish twist, and he is stamped underneath with the brand name and Made in Italy. New, he sits in the windows of Harrods and Mytheresa at a price that makes you wince slightly. Here he is a good deal kinder on the wallet.

He is a proper piece of sculpture. The shell is hand painted in soft tortoiseshell tones of cream, caramel and rose, each scute picked out individually, with a band of leaf green running round the rim. His head is raised as if he has just noticed you, his feet are planted with real weight, and from the middle of his back rises a green palm frond sconce that holds a standard dinner candle. The whole thing has the slightly glossy, slightly imperfect finish of something painted by a person rather than printed by a machine.

He measures 26 cm from nose to tail, 17 cm across and stands 13 cm high to the top of the sconce, so he needs a bit of room but rewards it. We have had him on the dining table with a single dark taper and he made the whole setting feel like a summer lunch in Puglia. He would also look very at home on a mantelpiece, a bathroom windowsill, or on a console table paired with a couple of palm or lemon pieces from the same house if you fancied building a collection.

Condition is excellent, with no chips, no crazing and only the faintest wear to the underside from being set down. The candle in the photographs is not included, but he takes a standard 22 mm dinner candle.

He is the kind of object that makes guests pick him up and ask where you found him. You can tell them the truth or not.