Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Rise and Fall Pendant Light, Model 2134, 1950s
About the Item
- Creator:Arteluce (Manufacturer),Gino Sarfatti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 9.45 in (24 cm)Diameter: 23.63 in (60 cm)
- Power Source:Hardwired
- Lampshade:Included
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Wargrave, GB
- Reference Number:
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, Sarfatti's 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.
Find vintage Arteluce table lamps, chandeliers, floor lamps and other lighting on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Wargrave, United Kingdom
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 1 day of delivery.
- Gino Sarfatti, Pendant Light, Model 2079, Design 1955, for Arteluce, ItalyBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Wargrave, BerkshirePendant light, model no. 2079, by Gino Sarfatti, design 1955, manufactured by Arteluce, Italy. Micro perforated lacquered aluminium shade over an opaline glass diffuser. Completely...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsAluminum
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Model 551 Light, designed 1952By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated 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, Wall Light, model 211, designed 1955, made by Arteluce 1950sBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGino Sarfatti, Wall Sconce, model 211, designed 1955 and manufactured by Arteluce in the 1950s. In black lacquered aluminium with reflector that rotates on its own guard axis, so th...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Model 169/2 Wall Light, Designed 1952By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Model 169/2 Wall Light, Designed 1952 Lacquered brass twin adjustable arms with black and white shades (repainted), each with perforated band allowing li...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Yellow and Brass Floor Light, model 1045, 1948By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGino Sarfatti, Floor Light, model 1045 for Arteluce, Italy. Designed in 1948, this example is likely to have been one of the first production run, as it has a brass upper stem (late...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal, Aluminum, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Rare Adjustable Wall Light, model 197, 1953By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireThis is a very rare extendable wall light, Model 197, designed in 1953 by Gino Sarfatti and produced by Arteluce. Black lacquered aluminum diffuser on a brass adjustable arm. Max...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Pendant Model '194/N'By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Waalwijk, NLGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, off-white pendant '194/N', metal, wire, Italy, 1950 A beautiful pendant in a natural colored metal made in Italy around 1950. This pendant designed by li...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Three-Light PendantBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in New York, NYGino Sarfatti for Arteluce pendant chandelier with three glass globe lights hung on black perforated enameled metal structures suspended from three-arm canopy. The glass globes are b...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- Model 2079 Pendant by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Los Angeles, CAModel 2079 pendant by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce. Designed and manufactured in Italy, 1955. Opaline glass diffuser, reflector with reversed micro perforated aluminum cup...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsAluminum
- Ceiling lamp '2042/3' Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce 1950sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Milano, ITPendant lamp model '2042/3' made of painted aluminum and frosted glass with three light points. Designed by Gino Sarfatti and produced by Arteluce in the 1950s, the lamp is restored ...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsAluminum
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Pendant LampBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Waalwijk, NLGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, pendant, aluminum, metal, Italy, 1950. Beautiful and sober pendant lamp designed by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce in the 1950s....Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Aluminum
- Sarfatti Pendant for Arteluce, Model 2102By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in New York, NYItalian Mid-Century pendant, model 2102, by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce. Off white metal shade with frosted glass diffuser and brass hardware. Holds one light source. Condition: Ex...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass