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Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

MID-CENTURY MODERN STYLE

Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.

ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS

VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.

Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively. 

Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer

Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.

The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.

As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.

Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.

As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.

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Style: Mid-Century Modern
Creator: Venini
Italian mid century glass Poliedri chandelier by Carlo Scarpa for Venini, 1958
Located in MIlano, IT
Italian mid century modern light pink and yellow polyhedral elements glass Poliedri chandelier or ceiling lamp by Carlo Scarpa for Venini, 1958. Glass chandelier, suitable as a ceili...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Tobia Scarpa for Venini 802.1 Pendant
Located in New York, NY
Hand blown frosted glass, chromed metal.. *2nd matching pendant available.
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal, Chrome

Large yellow Murano glass pendant lamp by Massimo Vignelli for Venini
Located in Steenwijk, NL
This yellow glass cylindrical pendant lamp was designed by Massimo Vignelli for Venini in the 1960's. It was made in 2 sizes with a heig...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Murano Glass Brass Conical Flush Mount, Italy, 1960s
Located in Frankfurt am Main, DE
A large Venini flush mount or pendant attributed to Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, Series -Tessuto-, Italy, 1960s. Hand blown from white and clear Murano glass in conical shape, brass ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Midcentury Carlo Scarpa Poliedri Chandeliers for Venini, Murano, Italy, 1960s
Located in Almelo, NL
MiCarlo Scarpa Poliedri Chandeliers for Venini, Murano, Italy, 1960s. We have two exquisite mid-century Venini Murano glass chandeliers for sale, designed by Carlo Scarpa in Italy...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Murano Glass Flush Mount by Ludovico Diaz de Santillana for Venini, Italy, 1970s
Located in Frankfurt am Main, DE
Murano Reticello glass Flush mount by Ludovico Diaz de Santillana for Venini, Series -Tessuto-, Italy, 1970s. Hand-blown from white and clear Murano glass in spiral shape, ceiling mo...
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Vintage 1970s Large Murano Tronchi Venini Glass Chrome 5 Tier Chandelier
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Vintage 1970s Murano Venini glass chandelier. 10 lightbulbs. 5 tiers of glass. 62 pieces of glass. No broken or chipped glass. Chrome cage with ceiling cap. Tested, working order. Ac...
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Blown Glass

Set of three pendants by Massimo Vignelli for Venini in Murano Glass
Located in Milan, IT
Set of Three pendants mod. 4041 in light blue etched Murano Glass designed by Massimo Vignelli and produced by Venini since 1954. Perfect condition, original electrical system and or...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

"Esprit" Chandelier by Toni Zuccheri for Venini
Located in Piacenza, Italy
Chandelier "Esprit" in Murano hand blown glass and chrome metal. Designed by Toni Zuccheri and produced by Venini in the 1970s. Bibliography: - Domus 436 (marzo 1966), advertising...
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Midcentury Murano Glass Chandelier Tronchi by Toni Zuccheri for Venini Italy 19
Located in Miklavž Pri Taboru, SI
The elegant Murano glass chandelier made in Italy in the 60s. Designer Toni Zuccheri for Venini & Co. Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass indu...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Murano Chandelier Calla Lily by Venini, Italy, 1960s
Located in Miklavž Pri Taboru, SI
The unique Murano chandelier Calla or Lily by Venini was made in Italy in the 1960s. Beautiful chandelier with glass flowers that seem to fall from a chrome stand. This lamp with its...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Italian Midcentury Murano Glass Chandelier, Venini "Tronchi" by Toni Zuccheri
Located in Traversetolo, IT
Toni Zuccheri's design for Venini's chandelier in the late 1960s is truly remarkable. The combination of Murano glass, brass, and chromed steel creates a stunning visual effect that ...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass, Steel

Cylinder Shaped Amber Murano Glass Pendant by Venini, 1980s
Located in Rotterdam, NL
A cylinder shaped amber coloured pendant designed and produced by glass specialist Venini. This model is designed in the 1950s, but this is a more recent production. The lamp i...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Tronchi Murano Glass Flush mount light Design Venini for Kalmar, Austria, 1960s
Located in Aachen, NRW
Stunning Murano glass chandelier designed by Venini for Kalmar, 1960s Two tiers gather many structured glasses, beautifully refracting the light very heavy quality. High quality and...
Category

1960s Austrian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Murano Glass Pendant Light by Venini, 1970s
Located in Palermo, PA
Stunning and rare Murano ceiling lamp by Venini, 1960s. Off-white glass with a white decor. Details Creator: Venini, Murano Materials and Techniques: Brass, Murano Glass Width...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal, Brass

Midcentury Italian Post Modern Clear Glass Murano Vetri Chandelier
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Stunning Venini midcentury Murano Triedri Chandelier. In a very desirable whale tail form. Features glass crystal prisms on polished steel frame. Takes 7 standard bulbs. Lead wire is...
Category

1980s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Steel

Venini Cascade Flush Mount Murano Glass Triedri Midcentury Italian Chandelier
Located in Escalona, Toledo
Spectacular, dazzling, elegant, beautiful. All is little for this flush mount chandelier. Piece by Venini made up of a brass-plated base with chains from which hang 48 Venetian Tri...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Carlo Scarpa Green Poliedri Chandelier in Murano Opaline Glass for Venini, 1958
Located in Vicenza, IT
“Poliedri” chandelier designed by Carlo Scarpa and produced by the Italian manufacturer Venini in, 1958. Made of opaline Murano glass. Born in Venice on June 2nd, 1906, Carlo Scarpa began working at a very early age. Only a year after he had first qualified as an architect in 1926, he began working for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin & Co. in a consultative capacity; from 1927, he began to experiment with the Murano glass, and this research not only gave him excellent results here but would also inform his progress for many years to come. Between 1935 and 1937, as he entered his thirties, Carlo Scarpa accepted his first important commission, the renovation of Venice’s Cà Foscari. He adapted the spaces of this stately University building which stands on the banks of the Grand Canal, creating rooms for the Dean’s offices and a new hall for academic ceremonies; Mario Sironi and Mario De Luigi were charged with doing the restoration work on the frescos. After 1945, Carlo Scarpa found himself constantly busy with new commissions, including various furnishings and designs for the renovation of Venice’s Hotel Bauer and designing a tall building in Padua and a residential area in Feltre, which are all worth mention. One of his key works, despite its relatively modest diminished proportions, was the first of many works which were to follow in the nineteen fifties: the [bookshop known as the] Padiglione del Libro, which stands in Venice’s Giardini di Castello and shows clearly Scarpa’s passion for the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the years which were to follow, after he had met the American architect, Scarpa repeated similar experiments on other occasions, as can be seen, in particular, in the sketches he drew up in 1953 for villa Zoppas in Conegliano, which show some of his most promising work. However, this work unfortunately never came to fruition. Carlo Scarpa later created three museum layouts to prove pivotal in terms of how twentieth-century museums were to be set up from then on. Between 1955 and 1957, he completed extension work on Treviso’s Gipsoteca Canoviana [the museum that houses Canova’s sculptures] in Possagno, taking a similar experimental approach to the one he used for the Venezuelan Pavilion at [Venice’s] Giardini di Castello which he was building at the same time (1954-56). In Possagno Carlo Scarpa was to create one of his greatest ever works, which inevitably bears comparison with two other museum layouts that he was working on over the same period, those of the Galleria Nazionale di Sicilia, housed in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo (1953-55) and at the Castelvecchio in Verona (1957- 1974), all of which were highly acclaimed, adding to his growing fame. Two other buildings, which are beautifully arranged in spatial terms, can be added to this long list of key works that were started and, in some cases, even completed during the nineteen fifties. After winning the Olivetti award for architecture in 1956, Scarpa began work in Venice’s Piazza San Marco on an area destined to house products made by the Industrial manufacturers Ivrea. Over the same period (1959-1963), he also worked on renovation and restoration of the gardens and ground floor of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, which many consider being one of his greatest works. While he busied himself working on-site at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Carlo Scarpa also began work building a villa in Udine for the Veritti family. To shed some light on the extent to which his work evolved over the years, it may perhaps be useful to compare this work with that of his very last building, villa Ottolenghi Bardolino, which was near to completion at the time of his sudden death in 1978. Upon completion of villa Veritti over the next ten years, without ever letting up on his work on renovation and layouts, Scarpa accepted some highly challenging commissions which were to make the most of his formal skills, working on the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa as well as another theatre in Vicenza. Towards the end of this decade, in 1969, Rina Brion commissioned Carlo Scarpa to build the Brion Mausoleum in San Vito d’Altivole (Treviso), a piece he continued to work on right up until the moment of his death. Nevertheless, even though he was totally absorbed by work on this mausoleum, there are plenty of other episodes which can offer some insight into the final years of his career. As work on the San Vito d’Altivole Mausoleum began to lessen from 1973, Carlo Scarpa began work building the new headquarters for the Banca Popolare di Verona. He drew up plans that were surprisingly different from the work he was carrying out at the same time on the villa Ottolenghi. However, the plans Carlo Scarpa drew up, at different times, for a monument in Brescia’s Piazza della Loggia commemorating victims of the terrorist attack on May 28th, 1974, make a sharp contrast to the work he carried out in Verona, almost as if there is a certain hesitation after so many mannered excesses. The same Pietas that informs his designs for the Piazza Della Loggia can also be seen in the presence of the water that flows through the Brion Mausoleum, almost as if to give a concrete manifestation of pity in this twentieth-century work of art. Carlo Scarpa has put together a highly sophisticated collection of structures, occupying the mausoleum’s L-shaped space stretching across both sides of the old San Vito d’Altivole cemetery. A myriad of different forms and an equally large number of different pieces, all of which are separate and yet inextricably linked to form a chain that seems to offer no promise of continuity, rising up out of these are those whose only justification for being there is to bear the warning “si vis vitam, para mortem”, [if you wish to experience life prepare for death] as if to tell a tale that suggests the circle of time, joining together the commemoration of the dead with a celebration of life. At the entrance of the Brion Mausoleum stand the “propylaea” followed by a cloister which ends by a small chapel, with an arcosolium bearing the family sarcophagi, the main pavilion, held in place on broken cast iron supports, stands over a mirror-shaped stretch of water and occupies one end of the family’s burial space. The musical sound of the walkways teamed with the luminosity of these harmoniously blended spaces shows how, in keeping with his strong sense of vision, Carlo Scarpa could make the most of all of his many skills to come up with this truly magnificent space. As well as a great commitment to architectural work, with the many projects which we have already seen punctuating his career, Carlo Scarpa also made many equally important forays into the world of applied arts. Between 1926 and 1931, he worked for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin, later taking what he had learned with him when he went to work for the glassmakers Venini from 1933 until the 1950s. The story of how he came to work on furniture design is different, however, and began with the furniture he designed to replace lost furnishings during his renovation of Cà Foscari. The later mass-produced furniture started differently, given that many pieces were originally one-off designs “made to measure”. Industrial manufacturing using these designs as prototypes came into being thanks to the continuity afforded him by Dino Gavina, who, as well as this, also invited Carlo Scarpa to become president of the company Gavina SpA, later to become SIMON, a company Gavina founded 8 years on, in partnership with Maria Simoncini (whose own name accounts for the choice of company name). Carlo Scarpa and Gavina forged a strong bond in 1968 as they began to put various models of his into production for Simon, such as the “Doge” table, which also formed the basis for the “Sarpi” and “Florian” tables. In the early seventies, other tables that followed included “Valmarana”, “Quatour” and “Orseolo”. While in 1974, they added couch and armchair “Cornaro” to the collection and the “Toledo” bed...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Glass, Murano Glass

Monumental Italian Murano Glass "Tronchi" Chandelier by Venini
Located in North Hollywood, CA
Stunning monumental Italian Murano glass “Tronchi” chandelier by Venini and manufactured in Italy, circa 1970s. This chandelier has a capt...
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Venini Midcentury Italian Flushmount Murano Glass Bubbles and Brass Chandelier
Located in Escalona, Toledo
Luxurious and Spectacular Flushmount Murano Hand Blown Bubbles and Brass Chandelier designed and produced by Paolo Venini in 1960 in Italy. With an exquisite design, it is a multitu...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Venini Mid-Century Modern Murano Glass chandelier
Located in Palermo, PA
Mid-Century Modern chandelier by Venini. 42 Murano glasses set on a metal base consisting of 2 tiers. The light has 7 bulbs. Details Creator: Venini, Murano Dimensions: Height...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal, Chrome

Vintage Crystal Cascading Chandelier by Paolo Venini for Venini, 1970s
Located in Lisboa, PT
This pendant lamp was designed by Paolo Venini for Venini during the 1970s, in Italy. It features a brass plate were dozens of frosted glass drops fall creating a layering effect wit...
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Murano Glass Chandelier by Toni Zuccheri for Venini
Located in Houston, TX
Murano glass chandelier by Toni Zuccheri For Venini. Our unusual vintage Italian chandelier, pendant or lantern is comprised of...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Chrome

Venini Original Signed 1960s Crystals Italian Chandelier
Located in Roma, IT
Midcentury ORIGINAL modern signed Italian spiral chandelier manufactured by Venini Marked “VENINI SAS MURANO MADE IN ITALY” Multiple tiers of Italian Murano crystals cut into triang...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Crystal, Metal

No. 4035 Pendant by Massimo Vignelli for Venini
Located in New York, NY
Blown glass, brass. Internally decorated blown glass shade. Brass mounts and 1 x E26 socket.
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Venini Mid-Century Modern Murano Glass and Brass Oval Chandelier, 9 Lights
Located in Plainview, NY
An exceptional Mid- Century Modern oval chandelier by Venini ( Founded 1921 in Milan, Italy by Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin). The stylish two-tiered chandelier features hand-blown Murano glass triede elongated prisms that dance in the light attached by two rods and rectangular ceiling...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Handsome Mid-Century Modern Murano Glass Flowers Sputnik Pendant Light by Venini
Located in Lisse, NL
Marvelous Mid-Century Modern, stunning design, chrome & glass flowers fixture. This aesthetically pleasing and very rare design, Murano glass pendant is in good condition and read...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Chrome

Venini Trilobo Murano Glass and Steel Chandelier circa 1960 Made in Italy
Located in High Wycombe, GB
Venini Trilobo Murano glass and steel chandelier circa 1960 Made in Italy Will require four chandelier bulbs. Venini—the world famous Italian gl...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Steel

Italian Murano Glass Chandelier in the Style of Venini
Located in Austin, TX
Spectacular vintage Italian Venini Murano glass chandelier made of hand blown opaline and cream glass with 23 carat "polvero d'oro" throughout (gold leaf flecks). Exceptional quality...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Cascade Venini Italian Midcentury Chandelier Multicolor Murano Glass Modernist
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Cascade La Murrina Italian midcentury chandelier multicolor Murano glass.
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Mid-Century Modern Triedri Chandelier by Venini, 1960
Located in Albano Laziale, Rome/Lazio
Add a touch of classic Italian craftsmanship to your home with this stunning Venini chandelier from the 1960s. The octagonal shape and chrome structure perfectly complement the four...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Chrome

No. 4029 Pendant by Massimo Vignelli for Venini
Located in New York, NY
Blown glass, brass. Internally decorated blown glass shade. Brass mounts and 1 x E26 socket.
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Mid-Century Italian Murano Glass Chandelier by Venini
Located in North Bergen, NJ
Mid-Century Modern Italian chandelier by Venini. Each of the prisms is solid glass, measuring 11 inches and 4 inches. They hang from hooks onto a chrome frame, as pictured. Any amoun...
Category

1960s Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Murano Glass Chandelier Designed by Venini, Murano, 1940s
Located in Palermo, PA
Murano glass chandelier designed by Venini, Murano, 1940s. It is made from Murano art glass and is composed of 3 glass cones set on a brass base. The glass is made using the techni...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal, Brass

Murano Glass Chandelier by Venini, 1960s
Located in Palermo, PA
Mid-Century Modern XL Venini chandelier. The light consists 162 original Murano glass crystals on a metal base consisting of 3 tiers. A true jewel for your home. Details Creator:...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Crystal, Chrome, Metallic Thread

Carlo Scarpa Big “Poliedri” Chandelier in Murano Opaline Glass for Venini, 1958
Located in Vicenza, IT
“Poliedri” chandelier designed by Carlo Scarpa and produced by the Italian manufacturer Venini in, 1958. Made of opaline Murano glass. Born in Venice on June 2nd, 1906, Carlo Scarpa began working at a very early age. Only a year after he had first qualified as an architect in 1926, he began working for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin & Co. in a consultative capacity; from 1927, he began to experiment with the Murano glass, and this research not only gave him excellent results here but would also inform his progress for many years to come. Between 1935 and 1937, as he entered his thirties, Carlo Scarpa accepted his first important commission, the renovation of Venice’s Cà Foscari. He adapted the spaces of this stately University building which stands on the banks of the Grand Canal, creating rooms for the Dean’s offices and a new hall for academic ceremonies; Mario Sironi and Mario De Luigi were charged with doing the restoration work on the frescos. After 1945, Carlo Scarpa found himself constantly busy with new commissions, including various furnishings and designs for the renovation of Venice’s Hotel Bauer and designing a tall building in Padua and a residential area in Feltre, which are all worth mention. One of his key works, despite its relatively modest diminished proportions, was the first of many works which were to follow in the nineteen fifties: the [bookshop known as the] Padiglione del Libro, which stands in Venice’s Giardini di Castello and shows clearly Scarpa’s passion for the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the years which were to follow, after he had met the American architect, Scarpa repeated similar experiments on other occasions, as can be seen, in particular, in the sketches he drew up in 1953 for villa Zoppas in Conegliano, which show some of his most promising work. However, this work unfortunately never came to fruition. Carlo Scarpa later created three museum layouts to prove pivotal in terms of how twentieth-century museums were to be set up from then on. Between 1955 and 1957, he completed extension work on Treviso’s Gipsoteca Canoviana [the museum that houses Canova’s sculptures] in Possagno, taking a similar experimental approach to the one he used for the Venezuelan Pavilion at [Venice’s] Giardini di Castello which he was building at the same time (1954-56). In Possagno Carlo Scarpa was to create one of his greatest ever works, which inevitably bears comparison with two other museum layouts that he was working on over the same period, those of the Galleria Nazionale di Sicilia, housed in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo (1953-55) and at the Castelvecchio in Verona (1957- 1974), all of which were highly acclaimed, adding to his growing fame. Two other buildings, which are beautifully arranged in spatial terms, can be added to this long list of key works that were started and, in some cases, even completed during the nineteen fifties. After winning the Olivetti award for architecture in 1956, Scarpa began work in Venice’s Piazza San Marco on an area destined to house products made by the Industrial manufacturers Ivrea. Over the same period (1959-1963), he also worked on renovation and restoration of the gardens and ground floor of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, which many consider being one of his greatest works. While he busied himself working on-site at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Carlo Scarpa also began work building a villa in Udine for the Veritti family. To shed some light on the extent to which his work evolved over the years, it may perhaps be useful to compare this work with that of his very last building, villa Ottolenghi Bardolino, which was near to completion at the time of his sudden death in 1978. Upon completion of villa Veritti over the next ten years, without ever letting up on his work on renovation and layouts, Scarpa accepted some highly challenging commissions which were to make the most of his formal skills, working on the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa as well as another theatre in Vicenza. Towards the end of this decade, in 1969, Rina Brion commissioned Carlo Scarpa to build the Brion Mausoleum in San Vito d’Altivole (Treviso), a piece he continued to work on right up until the moment of his death. Nevertheless, even though he was totally absorbed by work on this mausoleum, there are plenty of other episodes which can offer some insight into the final years of his career. As work on the San Vito d’Altivole Mausoleum began to lessen from 1973, Carlo Scarpa began work building the new headquarters for the Banca Popolare di Verona. He drew up plans that were surprisingly different from the work he was carrying out at the same time on the villa Ottolenghi. However, the plans Carlo Scarpa drew up, at different times, for a monument in Brescia’s Piazza della Loggia commemorating victims of the terrorist attack on May 28th, 1974, make a sharp contrast to the work he carried out in Verona, almost as if there is a certain hesitation after so many mannered excesses. The same Pietas that informs his designs for the Piazza Della Loggia can also be seen in the presence of the water that flows through the Brion Mausoleum, almost as if to give a concrete manifestation of pity in this twentieth-century work of art. Carlo Scarpa has put together a highly sophisticated collection of structures, occupying the mausoleum’s L-shaped space stretching across both sides of the old San Vito d’Altivole cemetery. A myriad of different forms and an equally large number of different pieces, all of which are separate and yet inextricably linked to form a chain that seems to offer no promise of continuity, rising up out of these are those whose only justification for being there is to bear the warning “si vis vitam, para mortem”, [if you wish to experience life prepare for death] as if to tell a tale that suggests the circle of time, joining together the commemoration of the dead with a celebration of life. At the entrance of the Brion Mausoleum stand the “propylaea” followed by a cloister which ends by a small chapel, with an arcosolium bearing the family sarcophagi, the main pavilion, held in place on broken cast iron supports, stands over a mirror-shaped stretch of water and occupies one end of the family’s burial space. The musical sound of the walkways teamed with the luminosity of these harmoniously blended spaces shows how, in keeping with his strong sense of vision, Carlo Scarpa could make the most of all of his many skills to come up with this truly magnificent space. As well as a great commitment to architectural work, with the many projects which we have already seen punctuating his career, Carlo Scarpa also made many equally important forays into the world of applied arts. Between 1926 and 1931, he worked for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin, later taking what he had learned with him when he went to work for the glassmakers Venini from 1933 until the 1950s. The story of how he came to work on furniture design is different, however, and began with the furniture he designed to replace lost furnishings during his renovation of Cà Foscari. The later mass-produced furniture started differently, given that many pieces were originally one-off designs “made to measure”. Industrial manufacturing using these designs as prototypes came into being thanks to the continuity afforded him by Dino Gavina, who, as well as this, also invited Carlo Scarpa to become president of the company Gavina SpA, later to become SIMON, a company Gavina founded 8 years on, in partnership with Maria Simoncini (whose own name accounts for the choice of company name). Carlo Scarpa and Gavina forged a strong bond in 1968 as they began to put various models of his into production for Simon, such as the “Doge” table, which also formed the basis for the “Sarpi” and “Florian” tables. In the early seventies, other tables that followed included “Valmarana”, “Quatour” and “Orseolo”. While in 1974, they added couch and armchair “Cornaro” to the collection and the “Toledo” bed...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Glass, Murano Glass

1960s Italian Murano Glass Globe by Venini
Located in Brussels, BE
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Large Italian Chandelier of the 40s/50s Signed Venini Murano Pendants
Located in Lyon, FR
Sculptural Italian chandelier from the famous house Venini dating from the 40/50s. Structures in white lacquered metal (original paint) and rectangular diffusers in transparent Muran...
Category

1940s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Venini Murano Orange Cased Glass Pendant 1950's
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
Classic Venini Murano dark orange and white, cased glass pendant chandelier. Very elegant UFO-"disco volante" shape. Height can be adjusted to desired length.
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Art Glass

Italian Mid-Century Pendant Lamp in Striped Glass and Brass by Venini, 1960s
Located in Morazzone, Varese
Beautiful small hanging lamp or lantern from Venini glass production in Italy in the 1950s. The glass is handmade and has regular white-blue stripes and a very nice shape. The color...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Petite Murano Glass Flush Mount Light Design Venini for Kalmar, Austria, 1970s
Located in Aachen, NRW
Stunning Murano glass Flush mount light designed by Venini for Kalmar, 1960s Brass plate gathers 18 structured glasses, beautifully refracting the light very heavy quality. High ...
Category

1970s Austrian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Venini Triedri Chandelier, Italy 1970s
Located in Greding, DE
Venini chandelier with Triedri glass prisms of clear glass in beautiful S-shaped gradient.
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Round Italian Venini 1970s Polyhedron Glass Chandelier
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Round Italian Venini glass chandelier from the 1970s with 169 polyhedron glass pieces.
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Glass

Grande Midcentury Chandelier Designed by Venini with Murano Glass Tubes 1950s
Located in Almelo, NL
Grande midcentury chandelier designed by Venini with Murano glass, Italy 1950s This grande chandelier consists of countless glass 'tubes' with textured designs of Murano glass and...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Large Tronchi Murano Glass Chandelier Design Venini for Kalmar, Austria, 1960s
Located in Aachen, NRW
Stunning Murano glass chandelier designed by Venini for Kalmar, 1960s Three tiers brass structure gather many structured glasses, beautifully refracting the light very heavy quality...
Category

1960s Austrian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Carlo Scarpa Poliedri Chandelier 1969 Murano Glass Light 110cm Mid Century Italy
Located in Munster, NRW
Called "Poliedri" in Italian and known as "Polyhedral" in English, this design was created by Carlos Scarpa (1906-1978) for Venini when he was their art...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Blown Glass

Murano Chandelier Tronchi by Toni Zuccheri for Venini Italy 1960s
Located in Miklavž Pri Taboru, SI
The incredible beautiful chandelier made of Murano glass Tronchi by Toni Zuccheri for Venini. Made in Italy in the 1960s. Designer Toni Zuccheri for Venini & Co. Venini & Co. played ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Murano Glass Flush Mount by Venini or Mazzega, circa 1960s
Located in Wiesbaden, Hessen
Rare mid-century amber noodle Murano glass flush mount by Venini or Mazzega, Italy, circa 1960s. The chandelier is made of over 100 Mazzega Murano glass elements and gilt metal fram...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Venini Chandelier in Coloured Murano Glass, 1950 circa
Located in Milan, IT
This large blue Murano glass chandelier was manufactured by Venini, in the 50s. This item will a touch of color and that unmistaken...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Set of 3 Large Paolo Venini Lamps Textured Murano Ice Glass Brass 1950 Kalmar
Located in Nierstein am Rhein, DE
Rare and early set of three Paolo Venini midcentury pendant lamps of slightly iridescent and textured Murano ice glass, Italy circa 1950s. The large lights...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Round Italian Blu Murano Glass Venini 1960 Brass Gold
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Round Italian Blu Murano glass Venini 1960 brass gold.
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Brass

Vintage Murano Glass Set of Wall Sconces by Venini, 1970s
Located in Bastogne, BE
A pair of wall lamps with conical shades made of Murano glass from Venini. Italy, 1970s. Plate-worked clear glass diffuser with white glass granules in the middle and amber...
Category

1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Chandelier "Tronchi" by Toni Zuccheri for Venini, 1960s
Located in Albano Laziale, Rome/Lazio
A midcentury classic so-called "Tronchi" chandelier by Gino Vistosi. Clear Murano glass tubes in different sizes that cascades down from a metal structure. In great condition. Total...
Category

20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Toni Zuccheri Membrana Ceiling Lamp in Murano Glass by Venini 1960s Italy
Located in Montecatini Terme, IT
Ceiling or Hanging lamp from the 'Membrane' series, designed by Toni Zuccheri and created between 1966 and 1968 by the famous Italian company Venini. The lamp presents a round sha...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Metal

Venini, vintage 35 glass flowers sputnik from 70s
Located in Catania, CT
Midcentury Italian glass sputnik produced by Venini during the 70s. Good vintage condition with normal trace of age and use. Some lack of chrome on the chromed brass of the central s...
Category

Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Chrome

Camer, Venini Solid Glass Chandelier or Pendant, 1960s, Italy
Located in St- Leonard, Quebec
Thick mouth blowed triad shaped optical grade glass bar. Prime quality material, solid sturdy steel structure. Contain two regular ceramic E26 size socket rated at 100 watts ...
Category

1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Steel

Venini Murano Glass Chandelier
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Mid-Century Modern Venini chandelier Murano glass from a Palm Beach estate Measurement of the chandelier portion itself is 13 5/8 height x 13 1/2 diameter Including the chain a...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Stainless Steel, Chrome

Italian Midcentury Double Murano Glass, Etched Pendant / Flush Mount by Venini
Located in New York, NY
Italian Mid-Century Modern double Murano / Venetian glass pendant / flush mount by Venini The piece is composed of 2 hand blown Murano glass shades with inserted 1 inside the othe...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Murano Glass

Mid-century Modern chandeliers and pendants for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a broad range of unique Mid-Century Modern chandeliers and pendants for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage chandeliers and pendants created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include lighting, decorative objects, serveware, ceramics, silver and glass and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with metal, glass and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Mid-Century Modern chandeliers and pendants made in a specific country, there are Europe, Italy, and Germany pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original chandeliers and pendants, popular names associated with this style include Fabio Ltd, J.T. Kalmar, Gaetano Sciolari, and Kalmar Lighting. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee.

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