Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Iron
1960s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Wood
1960s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Wood, Plastic, Walnut
1960s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Fabric, Wood, Velvet
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal, Brass
1970s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Fabric, Wood, Velvet
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Walnut
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1990s Italian Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Wood
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
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Bronze
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
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1960s German Industrial Vintage Olivetti Valentine
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1950s German Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
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Recent Sales
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
20th Century Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Fabric, Rosewood
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1970s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Italian Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1970s Italian Space Age Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal, Brass
1950s Italian Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1980s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Marble, Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1970s Italian Space Age Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
Mid-20th Century Spanish Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
Mid-20th Century Spanish Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Iron
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
Late 20th Century Italian Space Age Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1950s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Aluminum
1980s Italian Other Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Stainless Steel
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Stainless Steel
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal, Brass, Wrought Iron
1960s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1970s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Fiberglass, Mirror
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1970s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
20th Century Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Metal
1960s Italian Memphis Group Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1970s Italian Vintage Olivetti Valentine
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Steel
1960s Italian Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
1960s Spanish Post-Modern Vintage Olivetti Valentine
Plastic
Vintage Olivetti Valentine For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Vintage Olivetti Valentine?
Ettore Sottsass for sale on 1stDibs
An architect, industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, Ettore Sottsass led a revolution in the aesthetics and technology of modern design in the late 20th century.
Sottsass was the oldest member of the Memphis Group — a design collective, formed in Milan in 1980, whose irreverent, spirited members included Alessandro Mendini, Michele de Lucchi, Michael Graves and Shiro Kuramata. All had grown disillusioned by the staid, black-and-brown “corporatized” modernism that had become endemic in the 1970s. Memphis (the name stemmed from the title of a Bob Dylan song) countered with bold, brash, colorful, yet quirkily minimal designs for furniture, glassware, ceramics and metalwork. They mocked high-status by building furniture with inexpensive materials such as plastic laminates, decorated to resemble exotic finishes such as animal skins. Their work was both functional and — as intended — shocking. Even as it preceded the Memphis Group's formal launch, Sottsass's iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell and radical pops of pink neon — embodies many of the collective's postmodern ideals.
Sottsass's most-recognized designs appeared in the first Memphis collection, issued in 1981 — notably the multihued, angular Carlton room divider and Casablanca bookcase. As pieces on 1stDibs demonstrate, however, Sottsass is at his most imaginative and expressive in smaller, secondary furnishings such as lamps and chandeliers, and in table pieces and glassware that have playful and sculptural qualities.
It was as an artist that Ettore Sottsass was celebrated in his life, in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 2006, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art a year later. Even then Sottsass’s work prompted critical debate. And for a man whose greatest pleasure was in astonishing, delighting and ruffling feathers, perhaps there was no greater accolade. That the work remains so revolutionary and bold — that it breaks with convention so sharply it will never be considered mainstream — is a testament to his genius.