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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Alvino Bagni

Alvino Bagni (1919-2000) was mentored early in his career by Aldo Londi, art director for the Bitossi family ceramics studio. Bagni worked for Bitossi in Florence, Italy, for several years before opening his own studio called Bagni Ceramiche in 1956 in Lastra a Signa, a town near Florence.

Because Bagni's work was imported by Raymor and Rosenthal Netter, it is very often identified incorrectly as Londi or Bitossi. However, if a piece still has the Raymor tag, it will have BAG printed or handwritten there. Since many tags are missing, a Bagni piece can often be identified by a painted R followed by a three- or four-digit number.

Bagni pieces were generally more expensive than many of the Italian pieces imported by Raymor and often bring a higher price today. For example, while most Raymor imports sold in the $8-12 range in 1960, Bagni pieces sold in the $18-29 range. Bagni pieces on 1stdibs today have asking prices of $500-1000.

From  modernarmada.wordpress.com and sllab.net



Bowl
etsy.com - BMODN

Vase
ebay.com - nwartifact

Ribbed vase
ebay.com - hammerpriceauction

Lidded jar
1stdibs.com

Striped vase
1stdibs.com


I recently found a beautiful Bagni jar on eBay.  It is made of red clay, which indicates it is one of his works from the 1940s or 1950s. In the 1960s he began to use a white clay. The minute I saw the lid with a stylized bird knob, it was love at first sight. Still, I let the end of the auction get past me. Luckily, it received no bids. I contacted the seller and offered significantly less than the original asking price. After some negotiating, he agreed to relist it with a Buy It Now price of $65, which included shipping! Check out the latest addition to my vintage ceramics collection, which arrived in the mail yesterday.



Lidded jar by Alvino Bagni, imported by Raymor

Tag from my new piece

11 comments:

  1. What a stunning piece, well done!

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    1. I think I got it at a very good price. I'm really happy!

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  2. Great score Dana! ...I love the bird, it completes the pot!

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  3. Love the architectural look of it!

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  4. Oh wow, now thats a good find!

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    1. Ray, I admire your taste so much that it makes me feel really good for you to think it's a good find.

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  5. I love the motto as much as the pottery. Modern in the tradition of good taste. Meaning - yes, it's different, but it's pretty so stop whining about how it doesn't look like everything else in your boring old house!

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    1. That really was a cool tagline for Raymor, wasn't it? I'd noticed it, but I hadn't really thought about how they were trying to convince traditionalists to try something new.

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  6. I believe I might have one of his pieces. Is there someone with some knowledge about him that I could send a picture to?

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