Gio Ponti Venini Murano Glass Carafe Set
View Similar Items
Gio Ponti Venini Murano Glass Carafe Set
About the Item
- Creator:
- Dimensions:Height: 9.85 in (25 cm)Diameter: 5.91 in (15 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 7
- Style:Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950-1969
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Milano, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU254336750393
Gio Ponti
An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.
Ponti (1891–1979) designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, lamps and chairs to ceramics and coffeemakers — and his buildings, including the brawny Pirelli Tower (1956) in his native Milan, and the castle-like Denver Art Museum (1971), were erected in 14 countries. Through Domus, the magazine he founded in 1928, Ponti brought attention to virtually every significant movement and creator in the spheres of modern art and design.
The questing intelligence Ponti brought to Domus is reflected in his work: as protean as he was prolific, Ponti’s style can’t be pegged to a specific genre. In the 1920s, as artistic director for the Tuscan porcelain maker Richard Ginori, he fused old and new; his ceramic forms were modern, but decorated with motifs from Roman antiquity. In pre-war Italy, modernist design was encouraged, and after the conflict, Ponti — along with designers such as Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso — found a receptive audience for their novel, idiosyncratic work. Ponti’s typical furniture forms from the period, such as the wedge-shaped Distex chair, are simple, gently angular, and colorful; equally elegant and functional. In the 1960s and ’70s, Ponti’s style evolved again as he explored biomorphic shapes, and embraced the expressive, experimental designs of Ettore Sottsass Jr., Joe Colombo and others.
His signature furniture piece — the one by which he is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Germany’s Vitra Design Museum and elsewhere — is the sleek Superleggera chair, produced by Cassina starting in 1957. (The name translates as “superlightweight” — advertisements featured a model lifting it with one finger.) Ponti had a playful side, best shown in a collaboration he began in the late 1940s with the graphic artist Piero Fornasetti. Ponti furnishings were decorated with bright finishes and Fornasetti's whimsical lithographic transfer prints of things such as butterflies, birds or flowers; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts possesses a 1950 secretary from their Architetturra series, which feature case pieces covered in images of building interiors and facades. The grandest project Ponti and Fornasetti undertook, however, lies on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean: the interiors of the luxury liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Widely praised retrospectives at the Queens Museum of Art in 2001 and at the Design Museum London in 2002 sparked a renewed interest in Ponti among modern design aficionados. (Marco Romanelli’s monograph written for the London show, offers a fine overview of Ponti’s work.) Today, a wide array of Ponti’s designs are snapped up by savvy collectors who want to give their homes a touch of Italian panache and effortless chic.
Find a range of Gio Ponti furniture on 1stDibs.
Venini
Beginning in the 1930s — and throughout the postwar years especially — Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano. While the company’s founder, Paolo Venini (1895–1959), was himself a highly talented glassware designer, his true genius was to invite forward-thinking Italian and international designers to Murano’s hallowed workshops to create Venini pieces — among them Giò Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearnsof the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.
Paolo Venini trained and practiced as a lawyer for a time, though his family had been involved with glassmaking for generations. After initially buying a share in a Venetian glass firm, he took over the company as his own in 1925, and under his direction it produced mainly classical Baroque designs. In 1932, he hired the young Carlo Scarpa— who would later distinguish himself as an architect — as his lead designer. Scarpa, working in concert with practiced glass artisans, completely modernized Venini, introducing simple, pared-down forms; bright primary colors; and bold patterns such as stripes, banding and abstract compositions that utilized cross sections of murrine (glass rods).
Paolo Venini’s best designs are thought to be his two-color Clessidre hourglasses, produced from 1957 onward, and the Fazzoletto (“handkerchief”) vase, designed with Bianconi in 1949. Bianconi’s masterworks are considered by many to be his Pezzato works — colorful vases with patterns that resemble those of a patchwork quilt. Other noteworthy and highly collectible vintage Venini works include Ponti’s dual-tone stoppered bottles (circa 1948); rare glass sculptures from the Doge series by Stearns, the first American to design for the firm; Vignelli’s striped lanterns of the 1960s; the Occhi vases with eyelet-shaped patterns by Tobia Scarpa (son of Carlo); and, with their almost zen purity, the Bolle (“bubbles”) bottles designed by Wirkkala in 1968.
With these works — and many others by some of the creative titans of the 20th and 21st century — Venini has produced one of the truly great bodies of work in modern design.
- Striped ‘A Canne’ Glass Carafe by Gio Ponti for VeniniBy Gio Ponti, VeniniLocated in Chicago, ILSmall, striped glass carafe by Gio Ponti for Venini. This is an ‘A Canne’ or caned glass carafe or pitcher. It was produced in Italy at the Venini glass factory. In 1921 Venini and ...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Glass
MaterialsGlass, Blown Glass
- Murano Blown Glass Chandelier Design by Gio Ponti for Venini OfficialBy Gio Ponti, VeniniLocated in murano, ITThe models in the 99.81 collection were designed by Gio Ponti, who in 1946 applied to the contemporary style the refined colours introduced in the Venini palette by the great desig...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBlown Glass, Murano Glass
- Venini A Canne Pitcher by Gio Ponti Venice Murano 1950sBy Gio Ponti, VeniniLocated in Berghuelen, DEVenini A Canne Pitcher by Gio Ponti Venice Murano 1950s A vintage "a canne" pitcher with twisted polycrome canes in red, blue, green and yellow. Manufa...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Vases
MaterialsArt Glass, Murano Glass
- Gio Ponti Paolo Venini Murano Glass Bottle Morandiana Series 1982By Paolo Venini, Gio PontiLocated in Paris, IDFRare Gio Ponti and Paolo Venini bottle for Venini designed in the 1950s, “ A Canne” model from the Morandiana series. This example is a 1980s edition, signed Venini 82, with its orig...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Bottles
MaterialsGlass
- Bottle with Stopper by Gio Ponti for VeniniBy Venini, Gio PontiLocated in New York, NYHand blown incalmo glass decanter in white and green with stopper. Unsigned. Published: Venini: Catalog Raisonné 1921-1986, Diaz de Santillana, pg. 296. ...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Bottles
MaterialsBlown Glass
- Gio Ponti for Venini Old Lady Bottle Model 4492By Gio Ponti, VeniniLocated in New York, NYGio Ponti for Venini "Old Lady Bottle" with stopper model 4492, Italy, 1990. This lovely bottle has the shape of a female made in glass with two colo...Category
1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Glass
MaterialsBlown Glass
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Barnaba Fornasetti’s Hallucinatory House Has His Father’s Spirit
Behind a nondescript facade in northeastern Milan is the magical residence of Barnaba Fornasetti. It's a shrine to the style developed by his design-legend father, which still defies categorization.
Billy Cotton Layers His Interiors with Lived-In Comfort
The Brooklyn-based designer is adept at styles ranging from austere to over-the-top, espousing an architectural, detail-oriented approach also evident in his line of furniture and lighting.