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.
Table lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi ceramiche, 1970s
By Bitossi
Located in SAN PIETRO MOSEZZO, NO
Table lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi ceramiche from the 1970s. The table lamp is handcrafted in brown and turquoise gress, the latter part features beautiful ornaments also highlig...
Linen, Stoneware
Pair of Italian Pottery Lamps by Aldo Londi for Bitossi
By Aldo Londi, Raymor, Marcello Fantoni, Fantoni, Bitossi
Located in Houston, TX
Pair of Italian pottery lamps by Aldo Londi for Bitossi. Stunning and unusual pair of Italian pottery lamps by Aldo Londi for Bitossi. These masterfully created glazed pottery lamps...
Pottery
Bitossi Ceramic Table Lamp by Aldo Londi in creame & blue. 1970s.
By Aldo Londi, Bitossi, Bergboms
Located in Bromma, SE
Mid-century Modern Ceramic Table Lamp by Italian Bitossi for Swedish Bergboms. Hand thrown stoneware during the 1960s. Rough Chamotte structure with a glaze in creamy white. Art pot...
Brass, Enamel
Aldo Londi for Bitossi Ceramic Table Lamp, Italy
By Aldo Londi, Bitossi
Located in San Francisco, CA
Aldo Londi design ceramic table lamp for Bitossi, Italy. Rare and striking example of Bitossi, simple yet sophisticated pattern and texture. In very good original condition, everythi...
Ceramic
Aldo Londi for Bitossi Rimini Blue Lamp
By Bitossi
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
A large scale lamp, covered in Rimini blue glaze featuring incised Sgraffito decoration.
Ceramic
Pair of Monumental Ceramic Table Lamps by Aldo Londi for Bitossi
By Aldo Londi, Bitossi
Located in Saint-Ouen, IDF
Exceptional pair of ceramic table lamps designed by Aldo Londi for Bitossi during the 1960s. These highly sculptural lamps are exemplary of Londi’s celebrated approach to mid-century...
Ceramic
Bitossi Ceramic Table Lamp by Aldo Londi in Silver Coat. 1970s.
By Bitossi, Bergboms
Located in Bromma, SE
Bitossi for the Swedish Lighting Company Bergboms table lamp, in ceramic with silver metallic glaze. Tall cylinder body with neck glazed in a pewter or silver metallic and decorated ...
Brass, Enamel
$1,120Sale Price / set|20% Off
H 16.15 in Dm 6.7 in
Two Bitossi Table Lamps by Aldo Londi, Gold Glazed Ceramic, Italy, 1970s
By Bitossi
Located in Stockholm, SE
Two Bitossi table lamps, ceramic with 24k metallic glaze. The Bitossi factory mixed 24-karat gold to their gold glazes to achieve the right luster. Original paper label which read: '...
Gold
Aldo Londi for Bitossi Table Lamp
By Aldo Londi
Located in Dallas, TX
A ceramic table lamp designed by Aldo Londi for Bitossi .
Ceramic
Large Ceramic Lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi, Italy, 1970s
By Bitossi, Aldo Londi
Located in SAINT-OUEN, FR
Mid-Century Modern Space Age ceramic terracotta table or bedside lamp. Nice rattan wicker raffia shade. Italian design like Ettore Sottsass, Venini, Vistosi, La Murrina, Aldo Nason, ...
Metal
Tall Aldo Londi for Bitossi Orange & Mustard Ceramic Table Lamp, 1950s
By Aldo Londi, Bitossi
Located in Bainbridge, NY
Statuesque Aldo Londi for Bitossi Studios Vibrant handcrafted Ceramic Table Lamp. Featuring a smootly textured gloss glazed Orange cylindrical column with a bulbous Bright Yellow ball top and White enameled...
Metal
Rimini Blu Ceramic Fish Lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi, Italy 1970s
By Bitossi, Aldo Londi
Located in Southampton, NJ
Rare “Rimini Blu” Ceramic Fish by Aldo Londi for Bitossi, Italy, 1970s. Handcrafted in glazed ceramic, the piece captures Londi’s distinctive artistic language: whimsical yet refined...
Metal
Vintage Italian Table Lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi, 1960s
By Aldo Londi, Bitossi
Located in Asaa, DK
Vintage Italian ceramic table lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi, 1960s Italian mid-century modern table lamp in Rimini blue glace wit...
Ceramic