Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Rare Adjustable Wall Light, model 197, 1953
About the Item
- Creator:Gino Sarfatti (Designer),Arteluce (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 7.88 in (20 cm)Width: 59.06 in (150 cm)Depth: 13.78 in (35 cm)
- Power Source:Hardwired
- Lampshade:Included
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1953
- 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 for Arteluce, Adjustable Wall Light, model 205, Italy 1955By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGino Sarfatti, Model 205 Wall Light, designed 1955 and manufactured by Arteluce, Italy. This rare model is illustrated in the Sarfatti catalogue raisonée. Constructed from an opali...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, Model 169/2 Wall Light, Designed 1952By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated 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, Rare Early Triple Wall Light, circa 1940By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireRare early triple wall light by Sarfatti for Arteluce, as shown in a photograph advertising Arteluce's stand at the VII Triennale, Milano in Domus issue #149, 1940 Three white paint...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal
- Gino Sarfatti, Wall Light, model 211, designed 1955, made by Arteluce 1950sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated 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, Pair of Model 225 White Wall Lights, 1957By Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, a pair of wall lights, model 225 designed in 1957. Each stationary white lacquered aluminium reflector is supported by a brass rectangular wall mount 35...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
- Gino Sarfatti, Wall Mirror with Lights, Model 51/B, Design 1971, Arteluce, ItalyBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Wargrave, BerkshireGino Sarfatti, Wall Mirror with Lights, Model 51/b, design 1971, Arteluce Italy 1970s glamour! This fun wall mirror was designed by Sarfatti and pro...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum
- ADJUSTABLE WALL LIGHT BY GINO SARFATTI FOR ARTELUCE (Model 194N)By Gino SarfattiLocated in Long Island City, NYAdjustable wall light by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce (Model 194N) executed in green painted metal, painted steel, and chrome-plated metal, this piece retains its original green paint ...Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Steel
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce ‘181’ Wall LightBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Waalwijk, NLGino Sarfatti for Arteluce, wall light, model ‘181’, lacquered steel, coated steel, lacquered aluminum, brass, Italy, 1951 This wall light, a variation on model 181, is designed by ...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass, Steel
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Mod. 113/5 Light Wall BracketBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Hanover, MAGino Sarfatti for Arteluce 5-light wall mounted sconce, Model 113/5 (1946-1948); a series of five Model 10 white lacquered aluminum reflector shades connected by bronze patinated brass swivel joints to a 23 inch length of white lacquered "half circle" brass (Arteluce's words). I would describe it as a bisected 1.5 inch brass tube. Original Arteluce...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsAluminum, Brass
- Adjustable Sconce #149/N by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in New York, NYBrass wall mount and extended arm. Black painted metal shade and counter weight. Height can be adjusted and arm moves from side to side. Manufacturers label on inside of shade.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- Model 50 Wall Lamp by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, 1968By Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Rotterdam, NLOff-white lacquered Model 50 wall lamp by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce, designed in 1968 and manufactured in the 1970s. Marco Romanelli and Sandra Severi describe the wall lamp in '...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Model 237/2 Wall Lamp, Italy 1960sBy Arteluce, Gino SarfattiLocated in Naples, ITStunning three-light wall lamp model 238/3 by Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce 1950s. In excellent original condition. The brass wall plate with arms bent to form circles houses translucen...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal