Gianfranco Frattini Lamp Edited by Arteluce
View Similar Items
Gianfranco Frattini Lamp Edited by Arteluce
About the Item
- Creator:Gianfranco Frattini (Designer),Arteluce (Manufacturer)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1961
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses.
- Seller Location:Paris, FR
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU99271340076
Gianfranco Frattini
Gianfranco Frattini is widely regarded as a mid-century master of Italian modern design. He was an award-winning architect and designer, and specialized in creating furniture and decor that is both decorative and practical — Frattini’s vintage desks, armchairs, nesting tables and other works are celebrated for their sophisticated merging of function and form.
Born in Padua in 1926, Frattini studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He later apprenticed with his teacher and mentor, Gio Ponti. Through Ponti — arguably the most important figure in 20th-century Italian architecture and design — Frattini met many notable modernist designers such as Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier, but an introduction to famed Italian entrepreneur Cesare Cassina would prove incredibly significant in helping launch his career.
During the mid-1950s, Frattini began to collaborate with Cassina’s eponymous company. He designed the brand’s acclaimed leather and walnut Model 849 lounge chair — a winner of the Compasso d’Oro award — the Marema nesting tables and the iconic Sesann collection. The latter, an enduring 1970s suite of impossibly welcoming leather-covered seating, is now produced by Tacchini. In addition to Cassina, Frattini created furniture and lighting for other manufacturers such as Bernini, Arteluce, Artemide, Knoll and more.
While many of his designs incorporate glass, tubular steel and other materials, Frattini loved working with wood. The sculptural Albero bookcase — an innovative floor-to-ceiling structure made in walnut that swings on a 360-degree vertical swivel axis — is a striking example of Frattini’s dedication to traditional woodworking techniques. In the early 1970s, he traveled to Japan with friend and collaborator Pierluigi Ghianda — a master Milanese cabinet maker — in order to study the work of artisans in Kyoto. The trip inspired his design of the Kyoto table, a work of solid beech with Canaletto walnut inserts that is part of the permanent collection of the Milan Triennale’s Design Museum. The Kyoto and Albero have been revived by Poltrona Frau.
Frattini’s designs are in the permanent collections of prestigious museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Find vintage Gianfranco Frattini furniture, lighting and decor 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.
- Gianfranco Frattini for Arteluce Table LampBy Arteluce, Gianfranco FrattiniLocated in Waalwijk, NLGianfranco Frattini for Arteluce, table lamp, model 597, chrome-plated aluminium, rayon, Italy, 1961. Gianfranco Frattini designed this innovative table lamp for Arteluce in 1961. A...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum, Chrome
- Model 597 Table Lamp by Gianfranco Frattini for ArteluceBy Arteluce, Gianfranco FrattiniLocated in Los Angeles, CAModel 597 Table lamp by Gianfranco Frattini for Arteluce. Designed and manufactured in Italy, circa 1970's. Silk fringe, aluminum. Original EU cord. We recommend six E27 25w maximum ...Category
Vintage 1970s European Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum
- Gianfranco Frattini for Arteluce PendantBy Arteluce, Gianfranco FrattiniLocated in Waalwijk, NLGianfranco Frattini for Arteluce, pendant or ceiling light model 597/S, chromium-plated metal, chromed aluminum, painted aluminum, rayon, textured glass, Italy, 1961. Gianfranco Fra...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Chrome, Aluminum
- Round Arteluce Gianfranco Frattini Table Lamp '597' Model, 1961 SarfattiBy ArteluceLocated in Palermo, SicilyRound Arteluce Gianfranco Frattini table lamp '597' model, 1961 Sarfatti.Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum
$3,325 Sale Price20% Off - Gecko Table Lamp by Gianfranco Frattini for Leuka, 1970sBy Leuka, Gianfranco FrattiniLocated in Rotterdam, NLGecko table lamp by Italian designer Gianfranco Frattini for Leuka in 1971. Giuliana Gramigna described on Page 208 (1972) of 'Repertorio del Design Italiano 1950-2000' (translated from Italian): "Table lamp with adjustable angle reflector, connected with the base by a magnet." This surprising structure ensures that the lamp can be directed in all directions. The lamp is in good vintage condition. The electrical wiring is from the 70s and is still attached to the base of the lamp using the original rubber connection piece. Some loss of chrome on the top of the lamp can be noticed, the inside of the reflector is discolored. Gianfranco Frattini is also known because of the luminous snakelike fixture named Boalum which he designed together with Livio Castiglioni for Artemide and the impressive table lamp with fringes...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsChrome, Magnets
- Rare Lotus Table Lamp by Gianfranco Frattini for MeroniBy Gianfranco Frattini, MeroniLocated in Los Angeles, CARare lotus table lamp by Gianfranco Frattini for Meroni. Designed and manufactured in Italy, 1966. Wooden ring stand, glass base, metal armature covered in fabric. Shade is secured b...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum