Gino Sarfatti '600P' Table Lamp
View Similar Items
Gino Sarfatti '600P' Table Lamp
About the Item
- Creator:Arteluce (Manufacturer),Gino Sarfatti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 8.25 in (20.96 cm)Width: 3 in (7.62 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1966
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Remarkable original (working) condition with only very minor wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU828521544042
Gino Sarfatti
That a spiky, futuristic chandelier named “Sputnik,” which was highly suggestive of the Soviet satellite of the same name, designed by an Italian engineer could predate the space age and the satellite’s launch by a few decades is the stuff of legend. But in 1939, Venetian-born Gino Sarfatti channeled his obsession with light and expert engineering skills into a design so bold it predicted the future. He would go on to design around 700 lighting products in his lifetime — each table lamp, wall light, pendant and chandelier superb and unorthodox in shape.
Sarfatti’s singular focus on creating opulent lighting designs that were rational in their use of resources makes him one of the most innovative lighting designers in history. He was studying to be an aeronautical engineer at the University of Genoa when his family’s financial troubles led him to drop out and move to Milan to help. During this time, he built a lamp for a friend using a coffee machine’s electric components and a glass vase. This exercise sparked his fascination with lighting, and he went on to found Arteluce in 1939. What followed was a period of working with skilled artisans and tinkering with materials instead of sketching. The self-taught designer soon established himself as a creator of provocative, sculptural luxury lighting. Through the company, he collaborated with some of the 20th century’s most influential designers, such as Vittoriano Viganò, who worked on Arteluce lighting between 1946 and 1960. In the 1950s and ’70s, Franco Albini, Franca Helg, Ico Parisi and Massimo Vignelli all contributed designs.
Sarfatti used resources mindfully and injected functionality into everything he designed. His light fixtures were lightweight, easy to take apart and reassemble and could be affordably repaired. This marriage of utilitarianism and glamour lent Sarfatti’s designs a clean, minimal yet arresting splendor, based on their graphical forms and construction.
After World War II, Sarfatti embraced new wiring technologies and materials like plexiglass, such as his 1972 project with Carlo Mollino that filled the Teatro Regio in Turin with hundreds of plexiglass pipes. In 1973, Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS. His foresight, invention and fearlessness as a designer are revered to this day.
Find a collection of vintage Gino Sarfatti lighting now on 1stDibs.
Arteluce
The lighting maker Arteluce was one of the companies at the heart of the creative explosion in postwar Italian design. The firm’s founder and guiding spirit, Gino Sarfatti (1912–85), was an incessant technical and stylistic innovator who almost single-handedly reinvented the chandelier as a modernist lighting form.
Sarfatti attended the University of Genoa to study aeronautical engineering but was forced to drop out when his father’s company went out of business. His mechanical instincts led him to turn his attention to lighting design — and he founded Arteluce as a small workshop in Milan in 1939. Sarfatti’s father was a Jew, so the family fled to Switzerland in 1943, but after the war — largely thanks to Sarfatti’s insistence on efficiency of design and manufacture — Arteluce quickly established itself as a top firm. Though Sarfatti continued as chief designer through the 1950s and ’60s, he also enlisted other designers such as Franco Albini and Massimo Vignelli to contribute work. Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS — a rival Italian lighting maker — in 1973 and retired to pursue a more traditional avocation: collecting and dealing rare postage stamps.
Sarfatti is regarded by many collectors as a pioneer of minimalist design. He pared down his lighting works to their essentials, focusing on practical aspects such as flexibility of use. His most famous light, the 2097 chandelier, is a brilliant example of reductive modernist design, featuring a central cylinder from which branches numerous supporting fixtures extending like spokes on a wheel. Similarly, his 566 table lamp is a simple canister, able to be raised or lowered on a stem, holding a half-chrome bulb. Despite the marked functionality of his designs, Sarfatti did have a sprightly side: His 534 table lamp, with its cluster of rounded enameled shades, resembles a vase full of flowers, the Sputnik chandelier (model 2003) was inspired by fireworks and the brightly colored plastic disks of the 2072 chandelier look like lollipops. No matter the style, Sarfatti concentrated first and foremost on the character of light created — and any Arteluce lamp is a modernist masterpiece.
- James Bearden Cathedral Series LampBy James BeardenLocated in New York, NY'Illuminated Dwelling' lamp by American artist James Bearden, from his Cathedral series. Hand-forged of blackened and polished steel in 2015.. A one-of-a-kind design that is essentia...Category
2010s American Brutalist Table Lamps
MaterialsSteel
- Ross Bellah Prototype Floor LampBy Ross BellahLocated in New York, NYAdjustable (up-and-down and pivoting) floor lamp with a Constructivist iron base surmounted by a quirky, almost anthropomorphic hand-molded fiberglass diffuser–an early use of fiberglass in product design. A one-off by Ross Bellah, made in the 1940’s with a design that straddles the Machine Age 1930’s and the Organic Design 1940’s. Bellah (1907-2004), along with his partner Carl Anderson...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsIron
- Unique Elaine Lustig Cohen Wall LampBy Elaine Lustig CohenLocated in New York, NYStriking, one-of-a-kind constructivist wall lamp of tubular steel with distinctive conical metal up-and-down visors, measuring 96" in height and 48" in length. Designed by renowned g...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Steel
- David Wurster Floor Lamp for RaymorBy David Wurster, RaymorLocated in New York, NYFloor lamp with round disc base and three vertical rods surmounted by tricolor fabric shades. Designed by David Wurster and distributed by Raymor, circa ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal
- Altamira: Italian Furniture Glassware Lamps AccessoriesBy Altamira, Gio PontiLocated in New York, NYCatalog showcasing high-end Italian furnishings and accessories, published circa 1956 by the fabled Altamira design center located at 18 East 50th St in New York City. Per the introduction, “Altamira is the only center in this country where Interior-Architecture by Italy’s foremost architects is represented together with furniture, handicrafts, accessories and every other element essential to the modern interior.” Altamira commissioned a line of furniture from Gio Ponti in 1953, crafted by Giordano Chiesa in Milan. Included were a number of Ponti’s iconic mid-century designs—the Distex lounge chair and a self-described masterpiece, the two-drawer desk, model AP 1025, are shown in the present catalog. Shown, too, are furniture designs by Ponti’s fellow “interior architects” and designers Marco Zanuso (produced by Arflex Milano), Enrberto Carboni, Enrico Peresutti of BBPR, Carlo Pagani, Enrico Taglietti, Nino Zancada, Ico and Luisa Parisi, Ignacio Gardella...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Books
MaterialsPaper
- Tepper-Meyer Versi-TableBy Gene TepperLocated in New York, NYUp-and-down "Versitable" by Tepper-Meyer Associates of San Francisco, produced by Fred Meyer circa 1954. The two-position design can function as a dining or writing table in the high...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsSteel
$3,600
- Early 600p Table Lamp by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in London, London600P table lamp By Gino Sarfatti For Arteluce Original label Early example 1960s Italy.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsMetal
- Early 600P Light by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in London, GBEarly 600P light by Sarfatti for Arteluce in excellent condition.Category
Vintage 1960s European Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum
- White 600P Table Lamp by Gino Sarfatti by Arteluce, Italy 1966By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Echt, NLOriginal early version of the P600 lamp in very good original condition. Designed by Gino Sarfatti, in the 1960s Manufactured by Arteluce, Italy Made of lacquered metal and leath...Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsMetal
- Rare Pair of Mid-Century Gino Sarfatti Model 600P Lamps for Arteluce, Italy 1966By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in London, GBFor sale are a pair of iconic and extremely rare orange 600P table lamps by GINO SARFATTI, designed in 1966 and produced by Arteluce of Italy. Thanks to their lead-filled weighted p...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum
- Gino Sarfatti 600C Table Lamp Arteluce, 1970sBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in San Benedetto Del Tronto, ITDesigned by Gino Sarfatti in 1966, model 600 is an authentic and distinctive design masterpiece. The idea was inspired by the bean bag ashtrays. The leather base evokes a tennis ball. Thanks to the lead balls...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Table Lamps
MaterialsMetal
- Model 600 / C Table Lamp by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Kelkheim (Taunus), HENEW OLD STOCK Modell 600 / c Lamp by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce. Slight wear due to storage.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum