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20th Century Pietro Chiesa Wall Mirror with Copper Frame Galvanit Fontana, 40s

About the Item

After an apprenticeship with the glassmaker Giannotti Pietro Chiesa opened his own glass workshop in 1921. In the early 1920s he participated in the Monza Biennale, the Venice Biennale, the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and exhibitions in Cologne and Barcelona. He combines extreme modernity and high technical skill in his work. In 1932 he was called by Gio Ponti to share the artistic direction of the newly founded FontanaArte, a role that would give him the opportunity to express all his creativity, designing more than a thousand different objects (furniture, tables, lamps, stained glass, objets d'art, etc.). Here we have a wall mirror made in double mirror on ebonized wood frame with gilt decoration and mirror stops designed by Pietro Chiesa for Galvanit Fontana in 40s. Presence of the original brandmark on the back as shown in photos. Good condition, fully original. We recommend a wooden crate for shipping as the crystal part is very fragile.

Creator:

Pietro Chiesa (Author),Luigi Fontana (Manufacturer)

Dimensions:

Height: 24.02 in (61 cm)Diameter: 1.19 in (3 cm)

Style:

Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Copper,Crystal,Wood

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

1940-1949

Date of Manufacture:

circa 1940

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Turin, IT

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU5450234269502

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Shop All Luigi Fontana

Luigi Fontana

The bread and butter of the glassmaking company that Luigi Fontana founded in 1881 in Milan, Italy, was plate-glass panels for the construction industry. In 1930, Fontana met Gio Ponti — then the artistic director of the Richard Ginori ceramics workshop and the editor of the influential magazine Domus — at a biannual design exhibition that became the precursor to today’s Milan Design Triennale, and the two hatched an idea for a furniture and housewares firm. Fontana Arte was incorporated in 1932 with Ponti as its chief of design.

Best known for its elegant and innovative vintage lighting fixtures, Fontana Arte pioneered one of the key features of 20th-century and contemporary Italian design: the union of artistry and industry wrought by partnerships between creative talents — chiefly architects — and entrepreneurial businesses. Fontana Arte is further distinguished by having had as artistic director, in succession, four of Italy’s most inventive modernist designers: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, French transplant Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti.

Ponti contributed several lamps that remain among the company’s signature works, including the orb-atop-cone Bilia table lamp and the 0024 pendant — a stratified hanging sphere.

In 1933, Fontana Arte partnered with the influential Milan studio glassmaker and retailer Pietro Chiesa, who took over as artistic director. Chiesa’s designs for lighting — as well as for tables and items including vases and ashtrays — express an appreciation for fluidity and simplicity of line, as seen in works such as his flute-shaped Luminator floor lamp and the 1932 Fontana table — an arched sheet of glass that is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Six years after Chiesa’s 1948 death, the École des Beaux Arts–trained Max Ingrand took over as head of design at Fontana Arte. Ingrand brought a similarly expressive formal sensibility to wares such as table lamps and mirrors, but he also had a masterful eye for the manipulation of glass surfaces — whether they be cut, frosted, acid-etched or sand-blasted. His classic design is the Fontana table lamp of 1954, which has a truncated cone shade and curved body, both of which are made of pure, chic white-frosted glass.

Following Ingrand, the often-audacious Italian architect Gae Aulenti served as the company’s artistic director from 1979 to 1996, and while she generally insisted that furnishings take second place aesthetically to architecture, she made an exception for Fontana Arte pieces such as the Tavolo con Ruote series of glass coffee and dining tables on wheels, bold lighting pieces such as the Parola series and the Giova, a combination flower vase and table lamp. As a key incubator of modern design under Aulenti’s tenure, Fontana Arte remained true to its long-held commitment — creating objects that have never been less than daring.

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