Home/La Smorfia napoletana/7 · the clay pot

La Smorfia napoletana · Row 1–10

7 'O vasetto

In the Neapolitan tradition the number 7 is 'O vasetto, the clay pot. 7 other images share the square in the printed dictionaries, and row 1–10 of the tombola board is where it is called out.

Number
7
Neapolitan
'O vasetto
English
the clay pot
On the board
Row 1–10 of the tabellone
Where it is used
The Christmas tombola

Where the figure comes from

The attested reason, or a plain statement that the sources do not give one.

None recorded. The dictionary entries that sit on 7 lean funerary — cemetery, graveyard, a crime — which invites the guess that the pot is a grave vase rather than a kitchen one. That is a guess and it is worth marking as one.

Other things filed on 7

The printed smorfia dictionaries are far longer than the ninety-figure board. These are some of the other images they send to this number.

An angel (angelo)
A cemetery (cimitero)
A crime (delitto)
A dollar (dollaro)
Horns (corna)
A caged bird (uccello in gabbia)
A bow (inchino)

7 in the smorfia — frequently asked

The smorfia does not rank numbers by luck at all. It assigns each one a picture. Seven's picture is a small clay pot and it carries no verdict.

A little vase or pot. Italian lists specify earthenware, il vaso di creta.

Next door on the board

The squares either side, and the ones this figure keeps company with.

Read around it

A figure is not a forecast

The smorfia assigns pictures to numbers. Nothing on this page changes what comes out of a draw, and the odds pages say why.

See the real odds