Article: It Is Not a Chilli
It Is Not a Chilli
Hang around Naples long enough and you will start seeing them everywhere. Small red peppers above doorways, in shop windows, swinging from taxi mirrors, strung between the washing lines. Except they are not peppers, and Neapolitans will tell you so with some enthusiasm.
The charm is a cornicello, meaning little horn, and its ancestors go back to the Neolithic Mediterranean, when abundance itself was drawn as a horn. Over several thousand years it shrank, curled and turned red. By the time it started to resemble the region's most familiar vegetable, everyone had stopped calling it a horn.
What the Red Is For
Two things, mostly. Red has long been read as a lucky colour, and in medieval Italy it also stood for victory over whatever was coming for you. The charm is worn as a portafortuna, a bringer of luck, and as protection against the malocchio, which is the Italian evil eye.
The habit of hanging one from a rearview mirror is more romantic than it looks. It is a straight inheritance from the practice of tying a cornicello to a working horse, and the object simply moved across when the horses did.
There is one firm rule, and it is the reason this charm has survived. It cannot be bought for yourself. A cornicello only works when it has been given, which is why in Italy it is a favourite present between couples, and why Neapolitans send visitors home with one for somebody else.
The Reis Naples Collection
Traditionally these were carved from coral or shaped in terracotta, which is to say they were folk craft, made by hand and cheerfully imperfect. The Reis pieces keep the form and refine everything around it. The enamel colour is built in layers rather than painted on, which is why it shifts in depth as the light moves across it.
Naples Rosso
The anchor of the collection. A 14 carat gold body, a deep red pepper worked in cold enamel, and a fine 45 centimetre chain. Restrained enough for a Tuesday, alive enough to be asked about.
Naples Verde
The same silhouette in green enamel. Green horns hang alongside the red ones in Naples and are read as a sign of renewal, not a lesser option.
Naples Rosso Earrings
Set on a dangling hoop, the charm moves and catches the light across the enamel with every turn of the head.
Naples Verde Earrings
The green counterpart. Worn with the Rosso necklace, the mismatch is the point.
Naples Rosso Chain
The chain interpretation. Longer, more fluid, and built for stacking alongside hoops and studs already in rotation.
Napoli Verde Chain
The same longer line in green. The most understated piece in the collection, and the easiest to wear daily.
How to Wear It
— Let it lead. At the collar of a white shirt it holds the eye on its own. Keep the rest quiet.
— Break the symmetry. Rosso necklace with Verde earrings. Refusing to match is the whole point.
— Vary the lengths. Layered with finer plain chains at different drops, the enamel becomes an accent rather than a competitor.
Enamel keeps its depth if you put your jewellery on last and take it off first, away from perfume and hairspray, and out before swimming. A soft dry cloth does the rest.
Worth Giving Away
The tradition puts this charm at a threshold: a new home, new work, a first child, a move abroad. It is a way of wishing someone abundance without having to say it out loud, and two thousand years of people have found that useful.
Buy one for yourself if you like. Then buy the second one for somebody else, which is how it was always meant to work.
