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| Antiques |
Italian Renaissance
Marisa Bartolucci
07/01/2004
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VALUE JUDGMENT
Italian designer Gio Ponti is becoming increasingly well known as his work
in the fields of architecture, ceramics, textiles, furniture, industrial design,
set design and painting attract a growing number of enthusiasts.
Furniture
and furnishings designed by Ponti in the 1950s and 1960s have auctioned in
recent years for many times their presale estimates.
Work from earlier in his
career, from the 1930s and 1940s, is also rising in value, but may be had for
more reasonable sums. Furnishings and textiles designed by Ponti are readily
available for modest prices, but may also appreciate in value. |
Last spring
Loughrey co-curated a show of Ponti’s furniture from the mid to late 1950s with
modern and contemporary paintings at the Acme Gallery in Los Angeles to
demonstrate the lively dialogue between Ponti’s designs and the art. Among the
attractions were a Ponti-designed wall unit with a backboard of old woodcut
motifs by Fornasetti for $150,000, and a long, oval-shaped Brazilian rosewood
dining table with twin sculpted-wood pedestals for $22,000.
The furniture
Ponti designed in the 1930s and early 1940s is also rising in value. Eugenio
Montale of Pegaso International, a Los Angeles shop dealing in vintage modern,
is selling a glass, rosewood, burlwood and bronze vanity from the 1930s for
$18,500. Montale is always on the lookout for designs Ponti did in the 1940s for
Fontana Arte, a lighting and glass company Ponti founded in 1932. “The mirrors,
chandeliers and mirrored furniture are absolutely fantastic,” Montale says.
“They are always in demand.”
Ponti began his career in 1923 as the creative
director of the prestigious Italian ceramics company Richard Ginori, and prices
for the limited-edition pieces he produced during his years there can fetch up
to $35,000. Spectacular one-of-a-kind items, particularly hand-painted majolicas
(tin-glazed earthenware), may sell for $100,000. Also rare and highly valued are
the glass pieces Ponti designed for Venini, the fabled Murano-based glass
company, founded by Ponti’s childhood friend. Between 1946 and 1947, Ponti
served as the company’s art director. It was Ponti who introduced pure, intense
colors to the firm’s glassware. Kish is selling a very rare glass sculpture
Ponti designed for Venini in 1966 for $12,000.
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