Neapolitan cot with 27 polychrome terracotta and carved wood figures dressed in cloth, some embroidered, and wearing wicker, wood, leather and metal accessories. Animals and heads of angels and animals in polychrome terracotta are included. Italian work. Late 19th - early 20th century (* and **). H.: +/- 3 to 35 cm. The tradition of the "Presepe napoletano" dates back to the Middle Ages and continues to this day in Naples. Initially reserved for churches, which commissioned large-scale scenes, cots gradually became private installations. The 18th century was what we might call the Golden Age in this field. The cot became an artistic production in its own right, and renowned artists took up the challenge. The number of figures increased and the staging became spectacular, providing Baroque artists with a veritable breeding ground for glorifying the "Birth of the Christ Child". The "Nativity" now occupied only a small part of the composition, mixed in with a profusion of characters who no longer had anything sacred about them, treated realistically, often dressed in costumes, with terracotta faces, glass eyes and movable wooden arms that allowed them to adapt different attitudes. This craze gave rise to veritable competitions between churches, congregations, bourgeoisie, artistocrats, etc., providing a livelihood for generations of craftsmen. An 18th-century chronicle reports that King Charles III himself spent his leisure time making small bricks to bake, laying out cork and modelling huts, designing the distant landscape to house shepherds, while Queen Amélie wove, sewed and embroidered clothes. The tradition is still very much alive today, and Neapolitans continue to add satirical characters to their cots for the Christmas festivities. In fact, craftsmen's workshops continue to make "Santons" according to an ancestral know-how, creating representations of the personalities of our time.