Set of 2 Sconces by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Italy
View Similar Items
Set of 2 Sconces by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Italy
About the Item
- Creator:Gino Sarfatti (Designer),Arteluce (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)Width: 7.88 in (20 cm)Depth: 3.94 in (10 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Antwerp, BE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU931839363932
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, Sarfatti's 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.
Find vintage Arteluce table lamps, chandeliers, floor lamps and other lighting on 1stDibs.
- Set of Two Sconces Brass German designed by Dieter Witte for Staff, 1970sBy Rolf Krüger, Staff Leuchten, Dieter WitteLocated in Antwerp, BEArchitectural set of two 1970s minimalist modern design, metal gold wall lamps designed by Rolf Krüger and Dieter Witte for manufacture STAFF Leuchten, Germany. The wall lights desig...Category
Vintage 1960s German Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Set of Two Glass Blue and White Opalescent Sconces by Mazzega, Italy 1960sBy MazzegaLocated in Antwerp, BEPair of sconces by Venetian glass-blowing firm A.V. Mazzega. Textured glass has a strip of fused blue, opalescent glass applied down the center of each sconce. Each sconce has two so...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBlown Glass
- Stephan Copeland Set of Two Desk, Table "Tango" Lamps for ArteluceBy Arteluce, CopelandLocated in Antwerp, BESet of two desk lamps model "Tango" designed by Stephan Copeland for Arteluce, Italy. Flexible soft arms, adjustable in many positions. Height when fully...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsIron
- Set of Two Mid-Century Modern Sconces by Glashütte Limburg, GermanyBy Glashütte LimburgLocated in Antwerp, BEBeautiful wall lights with a unique 'iron' design by Glashütte Limburg, Germany. Manufactured in Midcentury, circa 1970. Black 'iron' squares inlaid in thick clear glass. High qualit...Category
Vintage 1970s German Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
$2,031 Sale Price / set20% OffFree Shipping - Set of Eight Large Kalmar Sconces, Smoked Glass by J.T. Kalmar, 1970sBy Carlo Nason, J.T. KalmarLocated in Antwerp, BEBeautiful and elegant large modern brass wall light or sconce, manufactured by J.T. Kalmar Austria in the 1970s. Lovely design, executed to a v...Category
Vintage 1970s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsArt Glass
$1,060 Sale Price / item20% Off - Set of Two Clear Glass Globes Sconces 1970'sLocated in Antwerp, BEA set of Brass 1970's Glass Globes Wall lamps.Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
$883 Sale Price / item20% Off
- Sconce "194n" by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Paris, FRSconce "194n" by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, 1950. Cup in black lacquered aluminium on the outside. Extendable arm and swivel allow horizontal movement, in brass tubing, and counter...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
$9,386 / item - Adjustable Sconce #149/N by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in New York, NYBrass wall mount and extended arm. Black painted metal shade and counter weight. Height can be adjusted and arm moves from side to side. Manufacturers label on inside of shade.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- Wall Sconce 194n by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Saint-Ouen, IDFBeautiful extending arm wall sconce designed by Gino Sarfatti and produced by Arteluce circa 1958. It is made of a brass multi part arm and...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
- Pair of Sconces by Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce, Italy, circa 1956By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in New York, NYEach sconce composed of a burnished brass structure with two arms, shielded by a white bent acrylic shade. OUR REFERENCE N10128Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- 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
MaterialsBrass, Aluminum
- Gino Sarfatti model 211 sconces Arteluce Italy 1955By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Roosendaal, Noord BrabantRare in two tone black and grey model 211 wall lamps designed by Gino Sarfatti and manufactured by Arteluce in Italy in 1955. Indirect light wall lamp, vertical or horizontal end pie...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass