1960s Gino Sarfatti Seguso Bubble Glass 3-Pendant Chandelier for Arteluce
About the Item
- Creator:
- Dimensions:Height: 47 in (119.38 cm)Diameter: 12 in (30.48 cm)
- Power Source:Hardwired
- Voltage:110-150v
- Lampshade:Included
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1960s
- Condition:Rewired. Additions or alterations made to the original. Wear consistent with age and use. Please see listing for details.
- Seller Location:Glendale, CA
- Reference Number:
Gino Sarfatti
That a spiky, futuristic chandelier named “Sputnik,” which was highly suggestive of the Soviet satellite of the same name, designed by an Italian engineer could predate the space age and the satellite’s launch by a few decades is the stuff of legend. But in 1939, Venetian-born Gino Sarfatti channeled his obsession with light and expert engineering skills into a design so bold it predicted the future. He would go on to design around 700 lighting products in his lifetime — each table lamp, wall light, pendant and chandelier superb and unorthodox in shape.
Sarfatti’s singular focus on creating opulent lighting designs that were rational in their use of resources makes him one of the most innovative lighting designers in history. He was studying to be an aeronautical engineer at the University of Genoa when his family’s financial troubles led him to drop out and move to Milan to help. During this time, he built a lamp for a friend using a coffee machine’s electric components and a glass vase. This exercise sparked his fascination with lighting, and he went on to found Arteluce in 1939. What followed was a period of working with skilled artisans and tinkering with materials instead of sketching. The self-taught designer soon established himself as a creator of provocative, sculptural luxury lighting. Through the company, he collaborated with some of the 20th century’s most influential designers, such as Vittoriano Viganò, who worked on Arteluce lighting between 1946 and 1960. In the 1950s and ’70s, Franco Albini, Franca Helg, Ico Parisi and Massimo Vignelli all contributed designs.
Sarfatti used resources mindfully and injected functionality into everything he designed. His light fixtures were lightweight, easy to take apart and reassemble and could be affordably repaired. This marriage of utilitarianism and glamour lent Sarfatti’s designs a clean, minimal yet arresting splendor, based on their graphical forms and construction.
After World War II, Sarfatti embraced new wiring technologies and materials like plexiglass, such as his 1972 project with Carlo Mollino that filled the Teatro Regio in Turin with hundreds of plexiglass pipes. In 1973, Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS. His foresight, invention and fearlessness as a designer are revered to this day.
Find a collection of vintage Gino Sarfatti lighting now on 1stDibs.
Arteluce
The lighting maker Arteluce was one of the companies at the heart of the creative explosion in postwar Italian design. The firm’s founder and guiding spirit, Gino Sarfatti (1912–85), was an incessant technical and stylistic innovator who almost single-handedly reinvented the chandelier as a modernist lighting form.
Sarfatti attended the University of Genoa to study aeronautical engineering but was forced to drop out when his father’s company went out of business. His mechanical instincts led him to turn his attention to lighting design — and he founded Arteluce as a small workshop in Milan in 1939. Sarfatti’s father was a Jew, so the family fled to Switzerland in 1943, but after the war — largely thanks to Sarfatti’s insistence on efficiency of design and manufacture — Arteluce quickly established itself as a top firm. Though Sarfatti continued as chief designer through the 1950s and ’60s, he also enlisted other designers such as Franco Albini and Massimo Vignelli to contribute work. Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS — a rival Italian lighting maker — in 1973 and retired to pursue a more traditional avocation: collecting and dealing rare postage stamps.
Sarfatti is regarded by many collectors as a pioneer of minimalist design. He pared down his lighting works to their essentials, focusing on practical aspects such as flexibility of use. His most famous light, the 2097 chandelier, is a brilliant example of reductive modernist design, featuring a central cylinder from which branches numerous supporting fixtures extending like spokes on a wheel. Similarly, his 566 table lamp is a simple canister, able to be raised or lowered on a stem, holding a half-chrome bulb. Despite the marked functionality of his designs, Sarfatti did have a sprightly side: His 534 table lamp, with its cluster of rounded enameled shades, resembles a vase full of flowers, the Sputnik chandelier (model 2003) was inspired by fireworks and the brightly colored plastic disks of the 2072 chandelier look like lollipops. No matter the style, Sarfatti concentrated first and foremost on the character of light created — and any Arteluce lamp is a modernist masterpiece.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Glendale, CA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 1 day of delivery.
- 1960s Gino Sarfatti Seguso Bubble Glass Pendant for ArteluceBy Archimede Seguso, Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Glendale, CA1960s Gino Sarfatti metal and Seguso glass pendant for Arteluce. Executed in hand blown bubbled Seguso glass and painted metal. The simplicity of Sarfatti's design and the sculptural...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- 1960s Gino Sarfatti Metal and Seguso Glass Pendants for ArteluceBy Archimede Seguso, Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Glendale, CA1960s Gino Sarfatti metal and Seguso glass pendants for Arteluce. Executed in hand blown bubbled Seguso glass and painted metal. The simplicity of Sarfatti's design and the sculptura...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- 1960s Gino Sarfatti Metal and Amber Seguso Glass Pendant for ArteluceBy Archimede Seguso, Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Glendale, CA1960s Gino Sarfatti Metal and Amber Seguso Glass Pendant for Arteluce. Executed in hand blown deep amber bubbled Seguso glass and painted metal. The simplicity of Sarfatti's design a...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- 1960s Gino Sarfatti Metal and Seguso Glass Sconce for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce, Archimede SegusoLocated in Glendale, CA1960s Gino Sarfatti Metal and Seguso Glass Sconce for Arteluce. Executed in hand blown bubbled Seguso glass and painted metal. The simplicity of Sarfatti's design and the sculptural ...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal
- 1960s Gino Sarfatti Model #26b Blue and Brass Wall Lamp for ArteluceBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Glendale, CAGino Sarfatti Model #26b Blue and Brass Wall Lamp for Arteluce. Executed in blue painted aluminum with a brass backplate. Double ball jointed arm allows flexible shade adjustments an...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
- Pair of Gino Sarfatti Model #10 Sconces for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Glendale, CAPair of Gino Sarfatti Model #10 sconces for Arteluce. Executed in white painted aluminum and custom fabricated period styled brass backplates designed to mou...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
- Large version Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce and Seguso glass pendant, Italy 1960sBy Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce, Archimede SegusoLocated in Milan, ITLarge 1960s Gino Sarfatti chrome metal and Seguso Bullicante Murano glass ceiling lamp for Arteluce.Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsChrome
- Seguso Glass Pendants by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Los Angeles, CASeguso Glass Pendants by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce. Designed and manufactured in Italy, circa the 1960s. Executed in hand blown bubbled Segus...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsSteel
- Seguso Pendants by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Archimede Seguso, Gino SarfattiLocated in Brooklyn, NYGino Sarfatti pendants for Archimede Seguso. Designed and manufactured in Italy in 1960s Seguso bullicante glass and enameled metal frames. Take one ...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti & Seguso Pendant Light, 1960sBy Archimede Seguso, Gino SarfattiLocated in Brussels, BEThe pendant is designed by Gino Sarfatti. He was one of the most avant-gardiste light designer in the twentieth century in Italy. The pendant combines his design with glass spheres d...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Gino Sarfatti SP/ 16 For Arteluce Unique Brass Bubble Pendant Lamp, 1950, ItalyBy Archimede Seguso, Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in The Hague, NLRare beautiful pendant lamp by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, 1950s, Italy. Model number: SP/ 16. This special pendant lamp, has five heavy massive bubble glass, made by Archimede Segu...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Pendant LampBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Waalwijk, NLGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, pendant, aluminum, metal, Italy, 1950. Beautiful and sober pendant lamp designed by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce in the 1950s....Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Aluminum