Pair of ceramic table lamps by Marcello Fantoni, Florence, Italy, circa 1970

A rare pair of monumental lamps in glazed stoneware by the Florentine ceramicist Marcello Fantoni (1915–2011), one of the leading figures of twentieth-century Italian art ceramics, whose works are held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza.

The hand-shaped ovoid bodies display a poured glaze of remarkable chromatic subtlety: the creamy, frosted white of the summit melts in gradation into a bluish grey, then into a deep midnight blue, punctuated by ashen streaks. Flecks of pyrite and textured crystalline effects (characteristic of Fantoni’s material experiments) enrich the surface, at once granular and luminous, revealing Fantoni’s mastery in the handling of fire.

Each piece is signed by hand on the reverse.

The wiring has been entirely renewed by a professional (new socket and cabling). The cylindrical shades in natural ecru fabric were made to measure by a shade-maker from the Decorative Arts sector, in perfect harmony with the tonality of the ceramics.