21st Century Gio Ponti 99.81 2-Light Wall Sconce in Green/Opalin Mole
About the Item
- Creator:
- Dimensions:Height: 9.85 in (25 cm)Width: 11.82 in (30 cm)Depth: 11.82 in (30 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:21st Century
- Production Type:New & Custom(Current Production)
- Estimated Production Time:6-7 weeks
- Condition:
- Seller Location:murano, IT
- Reference Number:
Gio Ponti
An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.
Ponti designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, mirrors and chairs to ceramics and coffeemakers — and his buildings, including the brawny Pirelli Tower (1956) in his native Milan, and the castle-like Denver Art Museum (1971), were erected in 14 countries. Through Domus, the magazine he founded in 1928, Ponti brought attention to virtually every significant movement and creator in the spheres of modern art and design.
The questing intelligence Ponti brought to Domus is reflected in his work: as protean as he was prolific, Ponti’s style can’t be pegged to a specific genre.
In the 1920s, as artistic director for the Tuscan porcelain maker Richard Ginori, he fused old and new; his ceramic forms were modern, but decorated with motifs from Roman antiquity. In pre-war Italy, modernist design was encouraged, and after the conflict, Ponti — along with designers such as Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso — found a receptive audience for their novel, idiosyncratic work. Ponti’s typical furniture forms from the period, such as the wedge-shaped Distex chair, are simple, gently angular, and colorful; equally elegant and functional. In the 1960s and ’70s, Ponti’s style evolved again as he explored biomorphic shapes, and embraced the expressive, experimental designs of Ettore Sottsass Jr., Joe Colombo and others.
Ponti's signature furniture piece — the one by which he is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Germany’s Vitra Design Museum and elsewhere — is the sleek Superleggera chair, produced by Cassina starting in 1957. (The name translates as “superlightweight” — advertisements featured a model lifting it with one finger.)
Ponti had a playful side, best shown in a collaboration he began in the late 1940s with the graphic artist Piero Fornasetti. Ponti furnishings were decorated with bright finishes and Fornasetti's whimsical lithographic transfer prints of things such as butterflies, birds or flowers; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts possesses a 1950 secretary from their Architetturra series, which feature case pieces covered in images of building interiors and facades. The grandest project Ponti and Fornasetti undertook, however, lies on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean: the interiors of the luxury liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Widely praised retrospectives at the Queens Museum of Art in 2001 and at the Design Museum London in 2002 sparked a renewed interest in Ponti among modern design aficionados. (Marco Romanelli’s monograph, which was written for the London show, offers a fine overview of Ponti’s work.) Today, a wide array of Ponti’s designs are snapped up by savvy collectors who want to give their homes a touch of Italian panache and effortless chic.
Find a range of vintage Gio Ponti desks, dining chairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Venini
Beginning in the 1930s — and throughout the postwar years especially — Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans who created extraordinary chandeliers, sconces and other lighting in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano.
While the company’s co-founder, Paolo Venini (1895–1959), was himself a highly talented glassware designer, his true genius was to invite forward-thinking Italian and international designers to Murano’s hallowed workshops to create Venini pieces — among them Gio Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearns of the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.
Paolo Venini trained and practiced as a lawyer for a time, though his family had been involved with glassmaking for generations. After initially buying a share in a Venetian glass firm — he and antiques dealer Giacomo Cappellin established Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. in 1921 — Venini took over the company as his own in 1925, and under his direction, it produced mainly classical Baroque designs.
In 1932, Venini hired the young Carlo Scarpa— who would later distinguish himself as an architect — as his lead designer. Scarpa, working in concert with practiced glass artisans, completely modernized Venini, introducing simple, pared-down forms; bright primary colors; and bold patterns such as stripes, banding and abstract compositions that utilized cross sections of murrine (glass rods).
Paolo Venini’s best designs are thought to be his two-color Clessidre hourglasses, produced from 1957 onward, and the Fazzoletto (“handkerchief”) vase, designed with Bianconi in 1949. Bianconi’s masterworks are considered by many to be his Pezzato works — colorful vases with patterns that resemble those of a patchwork quilt.
Other noteworthy and highly collectible vintage Venini works include Ponti’s dual-tone stoppered bottles (circa 1948); rare glass sculptures from the Doge series by Stearns, the first American to design for the firm; Vignelli’s striped lanterns of the 1960s; the Occhi vases with eyelet-shaped patterns by Tobia Scarpa (son of Carlo); and, with their almost zen purity, the Bolle (“bubbles”) bottles designed by Wirkkala in 1968.
With these works — and many others by some of the creative titans of the 20th and 21st centuries — Venini has produced one of the truly great bodies of work in modern design.
Find antique and vintage Venini chandeliers, serveware, table lamps, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: murano, Italy
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- 21st Century Gio Ponti 99.81 8-Light Chandeliers in Green/Opalin MoleBy Gio Ponti, VeniniLocated in murano, ITA work of art. More than that, a myth. Gio Ponti 99.81 owes its undisputed modernity and originality to the boundless creativity of its creator, Gio Ponti. Its uniqueness lies in its...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
- 21st Century Gio Ponti 99.81 2-Light Wall Sconce in GreyBy Venini, Gio PontiLocated in murano, ITA work of art. More than that, a myth. Gio Ponti 99.81 owes its undisputed modernity and originality to the boundless creativity of its creator, Gio Ponti. Its uniqueness lies in its...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsGlass
- 21st Century Gio Ponti 99.81 2-Light Wall Sconce in Coral / CrystalBy Venini, Gio PontiLocated in murano, ITA work of art. More than that, a myth. Gio Ponti 99.81 owes its undisputed modernity and originality to the boundless creativity of its creator, Gio Ponti. Its uniqueness lies in its...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsGlass
- 21st Century Gio Ponti 99.81 8-Light Chandeliers in GreyBy Gio Ponti, VeniniLocated in murano, ITA work of art. More than that, a myth. Gio Ponti 99.81 owes its undisputed modernity and originality to the boundless creativity of its creator, Gio Ponti. Its uniqueness lies in its...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
- 21st Century Gio Ponti 99.81 12-Light Chandeliers in Green / GreyBy Venini, Gio PontiLocated in murano, ITA work of art. More than that, a myth. Gio Ponti 99.81 owes its undisputed modernity and originality to the boundless creativity of its creator, Gio Ponti. Its uniqueness lies in its...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
- 21st Century Gio Ponti 99.81 8-Light Chandeliers in Coral/CystalBy Gio Ponti, VeniniLocated in murano, ITA work of art. More than that, a myth. Gio Ponti 99.81 owes its undisputed modernity and originality to the boundless creativity of its creator, Gio Ponti. Its uniqueness lies in its...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
- 21st Century Pavone Wall Lamp, dimmable, Gio Ponti 2019 ItalyBy Gio PontiLocated in Milano, LombardiaBetween 1957 and 1970 the association between Angelo Lelii and Gio Ponti, probably the most famous Italian architect and designer, is at its highest. Witness to this relationship is ...Category
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- 21st Century Pavone Wall Lamp, phase cut, Gio Ponti, 2019, Italy, USBy Gio PontiLocated in Milano, LombardiaBetween 1957 and 1970 the association between Angelo Lelii and Gio Ponti, probably the most famous Italian architect and designer, is at its highest. Witness to this relationship is ...Category
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Pair of Fontana Arte Sconces by Gio' PontiBy Fontana Arte, Gio PontiLocated in Los Angeles, CAOriginal vintage Italian wall lights with brass hardware and sand blasted glass graving / Made in Italy by Fontana Arte designed by Gio' Ponti, circa 1935 Measures: height 16 inches,...Category
20th Century Italian Neoclassical Revival Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- 21st Century Adjustable Glass Sconce with CaneBy Merve KahramanLocated in New York, NYCassini lamps are named after the famous “Cassini–Huygens” Mission which was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a probe to study the planet Saturn and its system. Cassini-Huygens has been described as a "Mission of firsts", that has revolutionized human understanding of the Saturn system, including its moons and rings, and our understanding of where life might be found in the Solar System...Category
2010s Turkish Arts and Crafts Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsCane
- 21st Century Pavone Large Pendant Lamp, DALI, Gio Ponti, 2019, ItalyBy Gio PontiLocated in Milano, LombardiaBetween 1957 and 1970 the association between Angelo Lelii and Gio Ponti, probably the most famous Italian architect and designer, is at its highest. Witness to this relationship is ...Category
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- 21st Century Pavone Medium Pendant Lamp, DALI, Gio Ponti, 2019, ItalyBy Gio PontiLocated in Milano, LombardiaBetween 1957 and 1970 the association between Angelo Lelii and Gio Ponti, probably the most famous Italian architect and designer, is at its highest. Witness to this relationship is ...Category
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Barnaba Fornasetti’s Hallucinatory House Has His Father’s Spirit
Behind a nondescript facade in northeastern Milan is the magical residence of Barnaba Fornasetti. It's a shrine to the style developed by his design-legend father, which still defies categorization.
Billy Cotton Layers His Interiors with Lived-In Comfort
The Brooklyn-based designer is adept at styles ranging from austere to over-the-top, espousing an architectural, detail-oriented approach also evident in his line of furniture and lighting.