Piero Fornasetti Set of Dinner Plates Decorated with Urchins and Sea Shells
About the Item
- Creator:Piero Fornasetti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 1 in (2.54 cm)Diameter: 9.5 in (24.13 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 8
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1965-1970
- Condition:Repaired: One plate with short hairline invisibly repaired. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Downingtown, PA
- Reference Number:
Piero Fornasetti
The Italian artist and illustrator Piero Fornasetti was one of the wittiest and most imaginative design talents of the 20th century. He crafted an inimitable decorative style from a personal vocabulary of images that included birds, butterflies, hot-air balloons, architecture and — most frequently, and in some 500 variations — an enigmatic woman’s face based on that of the 19th-century opera singer Lina Cavalieri. Fornasetti used transfer prints of these images, rendered in the style of engravings, to decorate an endless variety of furnishings and housewares that ranged from chairs, tables and desks to dinner plates, lamps and umbrella stands. His work is archly clever, often surreal and always fun.
Fornasetti was born in Milan, the son of an accountant, and he lived his entire life in the city. He showed artistic talent as a child and enrolled at Milan’s Brera Academy of Fine Art in 1930, but was expelled after two years for consistently failing to follow his professors’ orders. A group of his hand-painted silk scarves, displayed in the 1933 Triennale di Milano, caught the eye of the architect and designer Gio Ponti, who, in the 1940s, became Fornasetti’s collaborator and patron. Beginning in the early 1950s, they created a striking a series of desks, bureaus and secretaries that pair Ponti’s signature angular forms with Fornasetti’s decorative motifs — lighthearted arrangements of flowers and birds on some pieces, austere architectural imagery on others. The two worked together on numerous commissions for interiors, though their greatest project has been lost: the first-class lounges and restaurants of the luxury ocean liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Fornasetti furnishings occupy an unusual and compelling niche in the decorative arts: they are odd yet pack a serious punch. They act, essentially, as functional sculpture. A large Fornasetti piece such as a cabinet or a desk can change the character of an entire room; his smaller works have the aesthetic power of a vase of flowers, providing a bright and alluring decorative note. The chimerical, fish-nor-fowl nature of Fornasetti’s work may be its greatest strength. It stands on its own. Bringing the Fornasetti look into the future is Barnaba Fornasetti, who took the reins of the company after his father's death.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Downingtown, PA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Vintage Piero Fornasetti Porcelain Plates, Pair Decorated with Sea AnemonesBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAPair of Vintage Piero Fornasetti Porcelain Plates, decorated with sea anemones, urchins and shells, #7 & #12 from Conchiglie Pattern, Circa 1960-1970s. The Fornasetti plates are dec...Category
Mid-20th Century English Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Set of Fifteen Plates Decorated with Musical InstrumentsBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PALet there be music! Piero Fornasetti Set of Fifteen Different Ceramic Dinner Plates decorated with the Orchestra pattern, The set of fifteen plate...Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsCeramic
- Piero Fornasetti Porcelain Conchiglie Seashell Set of Plates with MollusksBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAPiero Fornasetti porcelain Conchiglie seashell plates with snails and mollusks, Set of Six, circa 1960s-1970s The Fornasetti plate is decorated in the Conchiglie pattern which d...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Strumenti Musicali Ceramic Plates, Set of SixBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAPiero Fornasetti Strumenti Musicali Plates, set of six The plates each depict a different selection of stringed instruments including ...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain
- Vintage Set of Piero Fornasetti Porcelain Rosoni Pattern Plates-RosettesBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAVintage Set of Six Piero Fornasetti Porcelain Rosoni pattern plates depicting Rosettes 1980s, The dramatic plates depict six different large black and white flower-shaped rosettes on a gilt ground. Dimensions: 10 inches diameter x 1 1/4 inches high. The plates are numbered 1-6, each a different design. Mark: a printed black and white flower with the name ROSONI above the Fornasetti hand...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain
- Vintage Piero Fornasetti Gold Adam Porcelain Plates, Set of TwelveBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAVintage Piero Fornasetti Gold Adam Porcelain Plates, 1970s. A complete set of twelve vintage painted gold ground transfer-printed porcelain plates in black and white...Category
Vintage 1970s Mid-Century Modern Decorative Art
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Porcelain Set of 8 Gilted Astrolabe PlatesBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Paris, FRPiero Fornasetti 1913-1988 lived and worked in Milano and he was very fond of science. This series normally is composed of 12 designs about astrolabe or "Astrolabos" in Greece which ...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Rare Vintage Matador & Bull Porcelain Dinner Plates Set of SixBy FornasettiLocated in North Miami, FLThese wonderful hard to find and hard to come by complete set of RARE wonderful bullfight black and white vintage Mid-Century Modern porcelain dinner plates are the genius work and i...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Eva / Eve Porcelain Plate # 3, SignedBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Kansas City, MOPiero Fornasetti Eva / Eve porcelain dinner plate number 3. Signed. Never used as a dinner plate.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Eva / Eve Porcelain Plate #5, Signed, UnusedBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Kansas City, MOPiero Fornasetti Eva / Eve porcelain plate number 5. Signed.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Eva or Eve Porcelain Plate # 8, Signed, UnusedBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Kansas City, MOPiero Fornasetti Eva or Eve porcelain plate number 8. Signed. Appears to be unused.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain
- Vintage Piero Fornasetti Display Plate, Barney's New York CollectionBy Piero FornasettiLocated in West Palm Beach, FLA Classic midcentury Italian Designed plate featuring an iconic image from Piero Fornasetti’s work, his muse the opera singer, Lina Cavalieri. Crisp black and white timeless design i...Category
1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain