ALDO LONDI TABLE LAMP FOR BITOSSI

A shapely ceramic table lamp with a bubbly, light gray glaze, festooned with pink, biomorphic shapes between horizontal sgraffito stripes—all outlined in black. It rises from a conical, solid walnut base and was designed in the 1960s by master ceramicist Aldo Londi for BITOSSI CERAMICHE. ALDO LONDI (1911-2003) was one of Italy’s most celebrated master ceramists. He spent most of his long and successful career creating exceptional works of great art and craft for the Italian ceramics firm Bitossi Ceramiche. Just outside of Florence, Londi’s hometown of Montelupo Fiorentino had been an important center of pottery production in Tuscany since the Renaissance. At the age of eleven, in 1922, Londi went to work for the region’s then-premier ceramics workshop, Fratelli Fanciullacci (Fanciullacci Bros.). There he would master the time-honored methods of the local industry. Following WW II—upon his return to Italy from South Africa, where he was held captive as a prisoner of war—Londi became cr