Italian Bitossi pottery slab sided vase (1960s)

A mid-century Italian Bitossi pottery slab sided vase. Designed by Aldo Londi (1911-2003), glazed in Rimini blue, signed to the base,

Height 21cm

The Bitossi family began making art pottery in the mid-19th century and Bitossi was incorporated by Guido Bitossi in 1921. In the 1930s, Aldo Londi brought with him a mindset that respected time-honoured craft, yet looked to the future.  

He reached out to thoughtful, experimental designers such as Sotsass. After hiring Sottsass to design ceramics for his New York imports company, Raymor, American entrepreneur Irving Richards connected the Milanese design polymath to Londi, who introduced Sottsass to ceramics in the 1950s.

During that decade, 20 years before he founded the Memphis postmodern design collective in Milan, Sottsass used the Bitossi kilns to create timeless works that manifest both primitive forms and modern geometries. In later decades, Bitossi would welcome new generations of designers, which have included such names as Ginevra Bocini and Karim Rashid.