Like a Fellini movie, the ceramics of the famed Italian company Bitossi Ceramiche embody a creative spectrum that ranges from the playful and earthy to the high-minded and provocative. Based in Florence, Bitossi draws on craft traditions that date back to the 1500s. These find expression in Bitossi pottery that includes artisanal vintage vases and animal figures by the firm’s longtime art director Aldo Londi, as well as the colorful, totemic vessels designed by the high priest of postmodernism, Ettore Sottsass.
Bitossi was incorporated by Guido Bitossi in 1921, though the family began making art pottery in the mid-19th century. In the 1930s, Londi came aboard, bringing with him a mindset that respected time-honored craft, yet looked also to the future. On the one hand, Londi’s perspective fostered the making of Bitossi’s popular whimsical cats, owls, horses and other animal figures, hand-shaped and -carved and finished in a rich azure glaze known as “Rimini Blue.”
But with his other hand, Londi reached out to thoughtful, experimental designers such as Sottsass. 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, some 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.
While always looking forward, Bitossi is firm in their belief that mastery of craft is the first step towards beautiful design. As you will see from the works offered on these pages, that is a winning philosophy.
Find a collection of vintage Bitossi decorative objects, lighting and serveware on 1stDibs.
Pair of Large Table Lamps by Bitossi
By Bitossi
Located in Long Island City, NY
A pair of large table lamp by Bitossi ceramic, Italy, Circa 1960th. Signed. Brown stoneware with blue glazed accents. Newly rewired. Cerami...
Stoneware
Table Lamp by Bitossi
By Bitossi
Located in Long Island City, NY
Ceramic table lamp by Bitossi, Italy. Marked: B4/35 Italy. Existing wiring, we do not guaranty functionality, rewiring available upon request. The lamp base heigh 14"; diam -5.5". ...
Stoneware
Large table lamp by GUNNAR NYLUND
Located in Long Island City, NY
Large stoneware vase now a table lamp designed by GUNNAR NYLUND for Rostrand, Sweden , circa 1950th. " Rubus" series. medium brown textured glaze with little touch of blue. Marked by...
Stoneware
Large table lamp by GUNNAR NYLUND
By Gunnar Nylund
Located in Long Island City, NY
Large stoneware vase now a table lamp designed by GUNNAR NYLUND for Rostrand, Sweden , circa 1950th. " Rubus" series. Medium brown textured glaze. Marked by manufacturer. Newly rewi...
Stoneware
A table lamp by Bitossi for Bergboms
By Bitossi, Bergboms
Located in Long Island City, NY
A table lamp by Bitossi for Bergboms, Italy/Sweden, circa 1960s. Textured ceramic with glossy details. Marked and numbered by manufacturer. Existing wiring, rewiring available upon...
Ceramic
Large Table Lamp by Just Andersen
By Just Andersen
Located in Long Island City, NY
A large table lamp by Just Andersen, Denmark, circa 1930. Patinated disco metal, marked: Just Denmark 2239. Existing European wiring, rewiring available u...
Metal
Bitossi, table lamp
By Bitossi
Located in SAINT-OUEN-SUR-SEINE, FR
Table lamp in blue enameled ceramic by Bitossi, Italy circa 1950’s.
Enamel
Large Mid-Century Modern Table Lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi
By Bitossi, Aldo Londi
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Large, Mid-Century Modern, art pottery, table lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi features a banded "Rimini Blue" ceramic orb base and brass neck with it's original, raw silk shade with g...
Brass
Table Lamp by Aldo Londi for Bitossi
Located in Sagaponack, NY
A table lamp with hand-thrown ceramic base in blue and beige glaze with manual relief embossing of geometric inspiration.
Ceramic
Table Lamp by Ugo Zaccagnini
By Ugo Zaccagnini
Located in Kilmarnock, VA
A beautifully proportioned and sculptural table lamp by Ugo Zaccagnini, featuring a soft robin’s egg blue crackled glaze with subtle tonal variation and surface depth. The gentle craquelure enhances the organic curves of the ceramic body, lending the lamp a tactile quality and a sense of quiet movement. The original rosewood cap and base provide a rich material contrast—dark, refined, and architectural against the delicate surface of the glaze. This interplay of texture and tone reflects the studio’s deep sensitivity to form and finish. Zaccagnini, one of Italy’s most respected 20th-century ceramicists, worked at the intersection of tradition and modernity. Known for his sculptural forms and refined glazes, his work was widely exhibited and retailed through top galleries and luxury decorators in postwar Europe and the United States. This lamp’s silhouette is bold yet fluid—equally at home in a richly layered interior or a clean-lined, organic modernist space. The cool, pale blue makes it a versatile design element: it can act as a subtle pop of color in a neutral room, or as a cool, calming contrast against deeper hues and dark woods. Designers such as Gio Ponti, Billy Baldwin, or Kalef Alaton...
Brass
Bitossi Lamp
By Bitossi
Located in Palm Springs, CA
A large pottery lamp by Bitossi. Great pattern and coloring. Signed on the base made in Italy. The base we had remade and painted brown while the wiring is new as well. The pottery h...
Pottery
Bitossi Aldo Londi Table Lamp, Italy
By Bitossi
Located in San Francisco, CA
Bitossi Aldo Londi ceramic lamp with encased decoration to the center and top in Rimini blue and ocean green colors. Classical form body that i...
Ceramic
