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Vintage Piero Fornasetti Gold Adam Porcelain Plates, Set of Twelve

About the Item

Vintage Piero Fornasetti Gold Adam Porcelain Plates, 1970s. A complete set of twelve vintage painted gold ground transfer-printed porcelain plates in black and white on a gold ground which as a group depict the biblical Adam. Dimensions: 10 1/4 inches diameter x 2 inches deep Marks: On bottom, transfer printed in black, on rim: "ALTO/HAUT/TOP [inside scroll pierced by arrow]". On bottom, transfer printed in black, center: "[Leaf]/1 (through 12)/Adam FORNASETTI . MILANO/MADE IN ITALY" Green under-stamp for Scherzer. Reference: Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams, Patrick Mauriès, page 238, the author writes- The idea of dividing up the bodies of Adam and Eve into twelve dinner plates is surely one that no one but Fornasetti would conceive. They were designed in 1954. Each plate has its attractions, but like a jigsaw puzzle they only reveal their meaning when seen together. Fornasetti: The Complete Universe, edited by Barnaba Fornasetti, Page 283, #45 & page 600, # 122 for an Adam and an Eve in the 4 inch coaster format. The following is an online entry accompanying plates from the Eve series in the Brooklyn Museum's Collection. Today when we think of where inventive contemporary design is manufactured, we often think of Italy. This, however, was not always the case. Wide acceptance of modern design came somewhat later in Italy than elsewhere, perhaps because of the ever-present conservative influence of the palpable Roman classical past and the slow development of the Italian economy in the twentieth century. To be sure, before World War II there were important modern designers in Italy, foremost Gio Ponti, an architect from Milan whose influence spread beyond his native country through two architecture and design magazines he founded, Domus and Stile. And the Fascist regime of Mussolini in the pre-World War II period did embrace modern architecture, unlike the Nazi regime in Germany, which consciously rejected modernism as a source of foreign, moral corruption. It was not, however, until the post-World War II era, when the Italian economy expanded rapidly, that Italian modern design achieved international recognition. One pivotal event made consumers in the United States aware of the diversity and accomplishments of modern Italian design-the exhibition Italy at Work, which travelled to twelve venues between 1950 and 1954. The exhibition was initiated by the Art Institute of Chicago in partnership with two organizations devoted to the promulgation of Italian design, Handicraft Development Incorporated in the United States and its corresponding institution in Italy, CADMA. Italy at Work included hundreds of objects by more than 150 artisans and manufacturers and featured furniture, ceramics, glass, textiles, metalwork, jewelry, shoes, knit clothing, and Industrial Design. The exhibition opened at the Brooklyn Museum, and at its conclusion, when the objects were dispersed among the host institutions, the lion's share, more than two hundred items, came to the Museum. In the second half of the 20th century, Italy became a center for modern design. Many foreigners went there to study and work at small, adventurous firms that produced high-quality objects.

Creator:

Piero Fornasetti (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 2 in (5.08 cm)Diameter: 10.25 in (26.04 cm)

Style:

Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Porcelain

Period:

1970-1979

Date of Manufacture:

1970s

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Downingtown, PA

Reference Number:

Seller: NY9615A-irrr1stDibs: LU861033365782

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Piero Fornasetti

The Italian artist and designer Piero Fornasetti was one of the wittiest and most imaginative talents of the 20th century. He crafted an inimitable decorative style from a personal vocabulary of images that included birds, butterflies, hot-air balloons, architecture and — most frequently, and in some 500 variations — an enigmatic woman’s face based on that of Cavalieri. Fornasetti used transfer prints of these images, rendered in the style of engravings, to decorate an endless variety of furnishings and housewares that ranged from chairs, tables and decorative objects to dinner plates, table lamps and umbrella stands. His work is archly clever, often Surrealist and always fun.

Fornasetti was born in Milan, the son of an accountant, and he lived his entire life in the city. He showed artistic talent as a child and enrolled at Milan’s Brera Academy of Fine Art in 1930, but was expelled after two years for consistently failing to follow his professors’ orders.

A group of Fornasetti's hand-painted silk scarves, displayed in the 1933 Triennale di Milano, caught the eye of the architect and designer Gio Ponti, who, in the 1940s, became the artist's collaborator and patron. Beginning in the early 1950s, they created a striking series of desks, bureaus and secretaries that pair Ponti’s signature angular forms with Fornasetti’s decorative motifs — lighthearted arrangements of flowers and birds on some pieces, austere architectural imagery on others. The two worked together on numerous commissions for interiors, though their greatest project has been lost: the first-class lounges and restaurants of the luxury ocean liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.

Fornasetti furnishings occupy an unusual and compelling niche in the decorative arts: they are odd yet pack a serious punch. They act, essentially, as functional sculpture. A large Fornasetti piece such as a cabinet or a desk can change the character of an entire room; his smaller works have the aesthetic power of a vase of flowers, providing a bright and alluring decorative note. The chimerical, fish-nor-fowl nature of Fornasetti’s work may be its greatest strength. It stands on its own. Bringing the Fornasetti look into the future is Barnaba Fornasetti, who took the reins of the company after his father's death.

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