A very Bagni birthday

I love Italian pottery, and one of my favorite designers is Alvino Bagni, who was mentored at Bitossi by Aldo Londi before opening his own studio.

I already have three Bagni pieces, and I'm always looking on Ebay and Etsy for more. A couple of weeks ago, I found a small vase that I loved, but I decided to take a chance that the seller would lower the price if it didn't sell. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened, and today I won the auction at the reduced price...the perfect birthday gift for myself. (Even better, when I paid by PayPal, I discovered that I had a balance from a refund I had forgotten about, so I was out-of-pocket less than $5. Nice surprise!)

The vase measures 5.25" in diameter by 6.75" high and is in that warm Bagni matte brownish-orange that always attracts me. I also find the abstract design stunning.

If you look very closely in the lower right-hand corner of the Raymor tag, you may be able to see the faint letters BAG, which was Raymor's code for Bagni pieces. I'm hoping, without the camera's flash, it will be more legible in person, but I knew what I was looking for and could just make it out.

Yet another Bagni bagged

I've added another piece of Alvino Bagni to my vintage ceramics collection. Imported from Italy by Raymor and still wearing its original sticker, this piece is only 3" tall, but it's big on style and beauty.

Intended to be an individual ashtray, it has V-shaped notches on each side. The glaze is Bagni's lovely mix of orange and brown, with just a touch of ochre. This time, though, it has a faint pearlized sheen, as does the band of incised gunmetal gray.

Best of all, I waltzed away from eBay with this sweet piece for just $20.

Alvino Bagni ashtray, imported by Raymor

Alternate view

Close-up of interior glaze

Close-up of incised band

Close-up of orange glaze

Original sticker

Another Bagni, I think

While researching Raymor tags recently, I found several lists of codes used by Raymor for designers and manufacturers. The lists were made by serious collectors, and while there are admittedly some guesses, I compiled them to post here, since you might find them useful in identifying pieces you run across.

ANE Toscane
BAG Bagni
BAL Baldelli
BIT Bitossi

CIC Pietro Ciccoli
CIN Cinelli (?)
ETR Etruschi
FAN Fantoni

GA Gambone
ICO Ico Parisi
LAC Laca Albisola (?)
MAN Mancioli
PF Fantoni
TAS Tasca
ZAC Zaccagnini 

If you have other codes to share or any corrections to make, please do. Information is always welcome here.

My Alvino Bagni lidded jar, which retains the tag shown above

I happened upon information indicating that Alvino Bagni pieces are sometimes found with only the word "Italy" stamped or hand-inscribed on the bottom, like this:

Bagni Sea Garden vase
modernarmada.wordpress.com

That inscription jogged my memory. I had been trolling eBay a few days before, stashing pieces in my Watch List till I had time to mull them over. I remembered an ashtray with a similar mark. Upon comparing the photos, they looked enough alike for me to hit the Buy It Now button and pay the seller $20.

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

Pronunciation Guide