A World in Terracotta

Our connection to Vagh began with Byblos itself. He was one of the ceramicists involved in the hotel’s early years, beginning a relationship with the property that stretches back almost six decades. That history led Fiona & Wanda to Salernes, a small town in the south of France with a long tradition of terracotta production, where Vagh built his life and work around the local clay. For our work at Byblos, we wanted to use terracotta rather than porcelain. There was something about the material that felt intrinsically connected to the Mediterranean — its warmth, irregularity and relationship to the architecture of southern France and Italy. At Vagh, we found that material, but also something much more unexpected.

Alongside traditional terracotta and richly glazed tiles was enamelled lava stone. Carved to form counter surfaces and then glazed, it produces an extraordinary depth of colour and a glossy, almost liquid surface. Deep chocolate brown lava was ultimately selected for the bathroom counters, while Vagh’s terracotta and glazed tiles appear elsewhere throughout the project.

Vagh’s fascination with ceramics seems to have escaped the usual boundaries of floors and walls. Using small leftover pieces of tile, each one ground and shaped by hand, he began covering some of the 20th century’s most recognisable objects — tractors, motorcycles, a sidecar and old cars — in ceramic. Even the upholstery was reimagined in tile. What might otherwise have been discarded became material for his curiosity and love of ceramics.

The same sense of abundance continues into their home. Art covers the walls; ceramics cover floors and surfaces. It is less a collection than a life completely immersed in making. For Fiona & Wanda, the visit became a glimpse into what happens when someone spends a lifetime exploring a single material — its usefulness, its possibilities and, occasionally, its absurdity. And for Byblos, it allowed us to bring a maker connected to the hotel’s past into its next chapter