Colorful Ceramic Lamp Italian Design By "Paolo Marioni"

Unique hand decorated Swedish mid-century modern ceramic lamp attributed to Tilgmans Keramik. One yellow, one rose colored bird sitting on a branch with light green leaves on blue/black sgraffito striped background. Black and white top and bottom part. Signature on a leaf. Beautiful vintage condition. Sweden, 1960s. Paul Harald “Harry” Tilgmann was born in Dresden, Germany in 1904 and emigrated to Sweden during WWII where he started Tilgmans Keramik (= Ceramics) in 1948 in the small town of Utbynäs close to Gothenburg. Tilgman had 16 employees working for him and when he hired the Polish refugee Marian Zawadzki (1912-1978) as artistic director in 1953, Tilgman Keramik started experimenting with the distinct sgraffito technique. The sgraffito technique consists of carving fine lines into the background of a design through a light colored glaze down to a dark grey clay slip. This created a unique textured ground which has become a style associated with Tilgmans Keramik in particular. The decorative elements also appear to be outlined with a carved line and then hand painted with overglazes where birds, fish, flowers, butterflies and other animals were a common theme. This type of work was the most popular in midcentury Sweden alongside Tilgmans small animal figurines...

Large Italian hand crafted ceramic sphere lamp on brass and enamel base. Raymor, Italy, circa 1950s.