Gino Sarfatti Mod.551 Table Lamp for Arteluce
View Similar Items
Gino Sarfatti Mod.551 Table Lamp for Arteluce
About the Item
- Creator:Gino Sarfatti (Designer),Arteluce (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 9.45 in (24 cm)Width: 6.7 in (17 cm)Depth: 6.7 in (17 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1952
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Minor fading.
- Seller Location:Milan, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU952714928031
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.
- Gino Sarfatti Iconic Ball Table Lamp for Arteluce Mod. 586, Italy 1960sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milan, ITGino Sarfatti iconic ball table lamp for Arteluce Mod. 586, Italy 1960s Original Label, Original wiring. Superb patina, and condition.Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum
- Gino Sarfatti Mod. 34 Variant Adjustable Wall Lamp for Arteluce, Italy 1954By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milan, ITGino Sarfatti Mod. 34 variant grey and burnished brass adjustable wall lamp for Arteluce, Italy, 1954.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti Model 1055 Floor Lamp for Arteluce, Italy 1955By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milan, ITGino Sarfatti Model 1055 adjustable floor lamp for Arteluce, Italy 1955.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal, Chrome
- Gino Sarfatti model 2095/9 ceiling lamp for Arteluce, Italy, 1958By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milan, ITGino Sarfatti model 2095/9 ceiling lamp for Arteluce, Italy, 1958 Original wiring and labels.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsAluminum, Metal
$8,750 Sale Price33% Off - Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce 'Fireworks' Brass Ceiling Lamp, Italy 1939By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milan, ITSublime Gino Sarfatti Model 2003 irr. Fireworks ceiling lamp. Italy 1939Category
Vintage 1930s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- 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
- Gino Sarfatti Table Lamp mod. 523 for Arteluce, 1964By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milano, ITImmerse yourself in the world of timeless elegance with the 1964 Gino Sarfatti table lamp, a true icon of Italian design. This extraordinary creation, born from the mastery of Gino S...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsCast Stone, Aluminum
- Rare Gino Sarfatti Table Lamp Mod n. 598 for ArteLuceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milano, ITEnter the world of rare and exquisite design with a true masterpiece from the 1950s – the Gino Sarfatti model 598 table lamp for ArteLuce. This is not just a lamp; it's a work of art...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsBrass, Iron
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Model 551 Light, designed 1952By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, model 551 table or wall lamp, designed in 1952 23cm high, 12cm wide The simple but clever design of this light allows it to be used as either standing u...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti Table Lamp for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in bergen op zoom, NLTable lamp model 600C designed by Italian lighting master Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce in 1966. This is an early edition Arteluce, however the labels were often polished off The ...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Minimalist Table Lamps
MaterialsFaux Leather
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce '516' Table LampBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Waalwijk, NLGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, table lamp, model ‘516’, brass, marble, enameled aluminum, Italy, 1948 This desk lamp, model 516, is designed by the influential designer in the field of...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsMarble, Aluminum, Brass
- Lamp '573' Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milano, ITSpotlight model '573' designed by Gino Sarfatti and produced by Arteluce in the 1950s; made of anodized aluminum equipped with green methacrylate screen, chrome-plated brass tube arm...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsAluminum, Brass