Master Italian ceramist Aldo Londi created a range of decorative objects in the latter half of the 20th century for the manufacturer Bitossi. In addition to the small-scale animal sculptures for which he is best known, Londi designed a variety of ceramics for the famed company that includes vases, bowls and desk accessories. Collectors know that vintage Aldo Londi pottery is marked by deep attention to detail and an integration of rich, alluring hues typically associated with the Mediterranean.

Londi was born in Montelupo Fiorentino, just outside of Florence, an area that has been known for its pottery since the Renaissance. Londi showed an early interest in the craft, apprenticing at the Fratelli Fanciullacci ceramic workshop when he was only 11 years old. He worked at the company until he left to fight in World War II. After returning to Montelupo Fiorentino in 1946, Londi became the creative director at Bitossi — a position he held for more than 50 years.

Londi's fresh and unique style breathed new life into Bitossi. He prioritized the production of high-quality and handmade decorative objects and created many of Bitossi's pottery lines himself. The most famous of Londi's Bitossi collections is the Rimini Blu line of animals and vases, which debuted in 1955. The collection is characterized by geometric and whimsical patterns and is recognizable for its marvelous blue color.

Londi's fame and popularity extended outside of Italy with the help of Raymor. The American import and distribution company introduced many esteemed Italian manufacturers such as Bitossi to boutiques and department stores in the United States. After Raymor founder Irving Richards hired Ettore Sottsass to design ceramics, Richards connected his new recruit to Londi. Decades before he founded a legendary postmodern design collective in Milan called the Memphis Group, Sottsass used the Bitossi kilns to create timeless works that manifest both primitive forms and modern geometries.

In 2021, Bitossi opened the Bitossi Archive Museum at its Montelupo Fiorentino headquarters. Many of the works designed by the company's most esteemed contributor and artistic director, Aldo Londi, are proudly displayed.

On 1stDibs, find vintage Aldo Londi serveware, lighting, decorative objects and more.

A Close Look at mid-century-modern Furniture

Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.

ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

Emerged during the mid-20th century
Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture
A heyday of innovation in postwar America
Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Europe

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

Simplicity, organic forms, clean lines
A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors
Use of natural and man-made materials — alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak; steel, fiberglass and molded plywood
Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery
Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors
Promotion of functionality

MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

Charles and Ray Eames
Eero Saarinen
Milo Baughman
Florence Knoll
Harry Bertoia
Isamu Noguchi
George Nelson
Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa

ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS

VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.

Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively.

Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer.

Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.

The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.

As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.

Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.

As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.

Finding the Right ceramics for You

Whether you’re adding an eye-catching mid-century modern glazed stoneware bowl to your dining table or grouping a collection of decorative plates by color for the shelving in your living room, decorating and entertaining with antique and vintage ceramics is a great way to introduce provocative pops of colors and textures to a space or family meals.

Ceramics, which includes pottery such as earthenware and stoneware, has had meaningful functional value in civilizations all over the world for thousands of years. When people began to populate permanent settlements during the Neolithic era, which saw the rapid growth of agriculture and farming, clay-based ceramics were fired in underground kilns and played a greater role as important containers for dry goods, water, art objects and more.

Today, if an Art Deco floor vase, adorned in bright polychrome glazed colors with flowers and geometric patterns, isn’t your speed, maybe minimalist ceramics can help you design a room that’s both timeless and of the moment. Mixing and matching can invite conversation and bring spirited contrasts to your outdoor dining area. The natural-world details enameled on an Art Nouveau vase might pair well with the sleek simplicity of a modern serving bowl, for example.

In your kitchen, your cabinets are likely filled with ceramic dinner plates. You’re probably serving daily meals on stoneware dishes or durable sets of porcelain or bone china, while decorative ceramic dishes may be on display in your dining room. Perhaps you’ve anchored a group of smaller pottery pieces on your mantelpiece with some taller vases and vessels, or a console table in your living room is home to an earthenware bowl with a decorative seasonal collection of leaves, greenery and acorns.

Regardless of your tastes, however, it’s possible that ceramics are already in use all over your home and outdoor space. If not, why? Whatever your needs may be, find a wide range of antique and vintage ceramics on 1stDibs.