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

Rare pair of monumental lamps in glazed stoneware, the work of Florentine ceramist Marcello Fantoni (1915–2011), one of the leading figures of twentieth-century Italian art ceramics, whose pieces 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-formed ovoid bodies display a poured glaze of remarkable chromatic subtlety: the creamy, frosted white of the summit fades gradually into a bluish grey and 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 of firing.

Each piece is signed by hand on the reverse.

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