Bitossi Flower

At 1stDibs, there are many versions of the ideal bitossi flower for your home. Frequently made of ceramic, pottery and fabric, every bitossi flower was constructed with great care. Find 10 options for an antique or vintage bitossi flower now, or shop our selection of 1 modern versions for a more contemporary example of this long-cherished piece. Whether you’re looking for an older or newer bitossi flower, there are earlier versions available from the 20th Century and newer variations made as recently as the 21st Century. A bitossi flower made by Mid-Century Modern designers — as well as those associated with Modern — is very popular. Many designers have produced at least one well-made bitossi flower over the years, but those crafted by Bitossi, Rosenthal Netter and Aldo Londi are often thought to be among the most beautiful.

A bitossi flower can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price 1stDibs is $825, while the lowest priced sells for $320 and the highest can go for as much as $1,500.

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.