(2) Italian Alessi Inox Chrome Plated Steel Bowls. Larger bowl is in a reticulated pierced style called "Cactus!" and marked on base "Inox 18/10 M. Sansoni, 2002." Smaller bowl is solid and smooth and marked on base "Inox 18/10 D'Urbino-Lomazzi, 2002." Marta Sansoni is an Italian designer living in Florence with a degree in Architecture. Since 1966 Donato D’Urbino and Paolo Lomazzi of Milan have been working together designing architecture, sculptures, and furnishings.
Condition: Commensurate with age.
Largest: 11 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.
Alessi is a housewares and kitchen utensil company in Italy, manufacturing and marketing everyday items created by a wide range of artisans, architects, and industrial designers including Achille Castiglioni, Richard Sapper, Marco Zanuso, Alessandro Mendini, Wiel Arets, Hani Rashid, Tom Kovac, Greg Lynn, Michael Graves, and Philippe Starck. Alessi was founded in 1921 by Giovanni Alessi, who grew up in Switzerland exposed to the high-quality manufacturing of local watchmakers and silversmiths. Their earliest works included a wide range of tableware in nickel, chromium, and silver-plated brass. His son Carlo Alessi was named chief designer when he was just 19, and between 1935 and 1945 he developed most of the products Alessi released. Carlo’s brother Luigi began bringing in outside designers to collaborate with the company in 1955, in an effort to reach a broader market beyond Europe. Many of these works became popular features of hotel chains, and by the late 1960s Carlo’s son Alberto was primed to take over, leading to some of their longest-lasting and most lucrative collaborations. The 1980s were difficult as Italian design companies began to fold or merge in an effort to compete with mass production and increasingly outsourced labor. The focus at Alessi shifted more towards functionality than before, and they also positioned themselves as a place for research and industrial production. In the 1990s Alessi started to work more with plastics, offering more design freedom and innovative possibilities, as well as a more whimsical approach to their products than an emphasis merely on luxury and quality. The 2000s took these experiments to new heights, sometimes producing items that seemed to defy physics or function ironically compared to their look, but by the 2010s the attempt at “novelty” had diminished and functionality balanced with form became company policy again. In 2006 the company reclassified its products under three lines: “A di Alessi” (more “pop style”), “Alessi” (a higher price range with their widest selection), and “Officina Alessi” (the more exclusive, innovative, and experimental items, marked by small-batch production and limited series). In 2007 Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture of Asymptote Architecture designed the New York City flagship store for Alessi in the SoHo neighborhood. The space featured an Alessi gallery, espresso bar and retail in a renovated historic loft building. Asymptote was responsible for not only the interior design of the space but also branding and the graphic identity, updating Alessi’s image from its 1980s Postmodern style to a contemporary architectural ethos. Today Alessi products are still found in households everywhere, as well as on display in museums worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Pompidou Centre, the Design Museum Holon, and the Stedelijk Museum Italy.
#5547 .
Condition
Commensurate with age.
