Bitossi Arabesque
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s Italian Vases
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s Italian Vases
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s Italian Vases
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Pitchers
Ceramic
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Decorative Boxes
Ceramic
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Ceramic
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Brass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Decorative Bowls
Ceramic, Pottery, Terracotta
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vases
Ceramic
20th Century Italian Decorative Baskets
Ceramic, Earthenware
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Planters, Cachepots and Jardini...
Ceramic, Pottery
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vases
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Table Lamps
Chrome
Mid-20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Pottery
Ceramic, Pottery
Mid-20th Century Italian Pottery
Ceramic
Antique Late 19th Century French Renaissance Revival Vases
Ceramic, Earthenware, Pottery
Antique 19th Century French Vases
Ceramic, Faience
Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Vases
Blown Glass, Murano Glass
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
20th Century Italian Animal Sculptures
Pottery
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ceramics
Recent Sales
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Antique 1690s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Bitossi for sale on 1stDibs
Like a Fellini movie, the ceramics of the famed Italian company Bitossi Ceramiche embody a creative spectrum that ranges from the playful and earthy to the high-minded and provocative. Based in Florence, Bitossi draws on craft traditions that date back to the 1500s. These find expression in Bitossi pottery that includes artisanal vintage vases and animal figures by the firm’s longtime art director Aldo Londi, as well as the colorful, totemic vessels designed by the high priest of postmodernism, Ettore Sottsass.
Bitossi was incorporated by Guido Bitossi in 1921, though the family began making art pottery in the mid-19th century. In the 1930s, Londi came aboard, bringing with him a mindset that respected time-honored craft, yet looked also to the future. On the one hand, Londi’s perspective fostered the making of Bitossi’s popular whimsical cats, owls, horses and other animal figures, hand-shaped and -carved and finished in a rich azure glaze known as “Rimini Blue.”
But with his other hand, Londi reached out to thoughtful, experimental designers such as Sottsass. After hiring Sottsass to design ceramics for his New York imports company, Raymor, American entrepreneur Irving Richards connected the Milanese design polymath to Londi, who introduced Sottsass to ceramics in the 1950s.
During that decade, some 20 years before he founded the Memphis postmodern design collective in Milan, Sottsass used the Bitossi kilns to create timeless works that manifest both primitive forms and modern geometries. In later decades, Bitossi would welcome new generations of designers, which have included such names as Ginevra Bocini and Karim Rashid.
While always looking forward, Bitossi is firm in their belief that mastery of craft is the first step towards beautiful design. As you will see from the works offered on these pages, that is a winning philosophy.
Find a collection of vintage Bitossi decorative objects, lighting and serveware on 1stDibs.