Aldo Londi Bitossi Rimini Blue Vase: Mid-Century Modern Italian Ceramic, 9" H

Presented here is an extremely RARE Stunning Aldo Londi Large Terracotta Ceramic Rimini Blue Vase for Bitossi, 9''H, Hand Made in Italy 1960s.

This very beautiful decorative 1960s ceramic vase was from the Rimini Blu collection, manufactured by Bitossi, hand made in Italy. The design is by the renowned Italian artist and painter Aldo Londi.

Aldo Londi's most famous design is the Rimini Blu collection, created between 1957 and 1965. All designs feature the characteristic pattern and blue color, glazed by hand with a geometric design carved. This vase would be perfect to complete a midcentury living room adding vivid colors.

Height: 9 inches
Center diameter: 8.5 inches
Weight: 6 lb 5 oz without any packaging
Creator: Bitossi (Manufacturer), Aldo Londi (Designer)
Style: Mid-Century Modern (of the Period)
Materials and Techniques: Ceramic
Place of Origin: Italy
Period: 1960-1969
Date of Manufacture: circa 1965

Excellent /MINT Condition: Perfectly kept. No chips, scratches, stains, or discoloration, absolutely stunning and highly collectible. Marked on the bottom of the base. The original paper sticker is also there. Please examine the photos and the video carefully as they are part of the description.

About the artist Aldo Londi:
Aldo Londi (1911-2003) was a painter, sculptor and primarily ceramist. He created objects that are still part of the history of Italian ceramics. He was born in Montelupo Fiorentino. At the age of eleven, he started working for Fanciullacci’s manufacturing, where he could learn the traditional techniques in making pottery. After the war, Londi kept on his work and became Art Director of the famous Bitossi family ceramics studio in Montelupo. By Londi’s new style, Bitossi production had a sudden transformation. The style of Londi promoted the production of new high-quality objects realized by handcraft methods. For Bitossi he designed his most famous lines of pottery such as ‘Rimini blu’, ‘Mondrian’, ‘Lobster’, ‘Sivilla’ and ‘Etrusca’. These lines were distributed widely in the United States by Raymor Company, which was one of the most influential importers and distributors of modern decorative arts during the mid-20th century.

Master Italian ceramist Aldo Londi created a range of decorative objects in the latter half of the 20th century for the manufacturer Bitossi. In addition to the small-scale animal sculptures for which he is best known, Londi designed a variety of ceramics for the famed company that includes vases, bowls and desk accessories. Collectors know that vintage Aldo Londi pottery is marked by deep attention to detail and an integration of rich, alluring hues typically associated with the Mediterranean.

Londi was born in Montelupo Fiorentino, just outside of Florence, an area that has been known for its pottery since the Renaissance. Londi showed an early interest in the craft, apprenticing at the Fratelli Fanciullacci ceramic workshop when he was only 11 years old. He worked at the company until he left to fight in World War II. After returning to Montelupo Fiorentino in 1946, Londi became the creative director at Bitossi — a position he held for more than 50 years.

Londi's fresh and unique style breathed new life into Bitossi. He prioritized the production of high-quality and handmade decorative objects and created many of Bitossi's pottery lines himself. The most famous of Londi's Bitossi collections is the Rimini Blu line of animals and vases, which debuted in 1955. The collection is characterized by geometric and whimsical patterns and is recognizable for its marvelous blue color.

Londi's fame and popularity extended outside of Italy with the help of Raymor. The American import and distribution company introduced many esteemed Italian manufacturers such as Bitossi to boutiques and department stores in the United States. After Raymor founder Irving Richards hired Ettore Sottsass to design ceramics, Richards connected his new recruit to Londi. Decades before he founded a legendary postmodern design collective in Milan called the Memphis Group, Sottsass used the Bitossi kilns to create timeless works that manifest both primitive forms and modern geometries.

In 2021, Bitossi opened the Bitossi Archive Museum at its Montelupo Fiorentino headquarters. Many of the works designed by the company's most esteemed contributor and artistic director, Aldo Londi, are proudly displayed.

About Bitossi:
Like a Fellini movie, the ceramics of the famed Italian company Bitossi Ceramiche embody a creative spectrum that ranges from the playful and earthy to the high-minded and provocative. Based in Florence, Bitossi draws on craft traditions that date back to the 1500s. These find expression in Bitossi pottery that includes artisanal vintage vases and animal figures by the firm’s longtime art director Aldo Londi, as well as the colorful, totemic vessels designed by the high priest of postmodernism, Ettore Sottsass.

Bitossi was incorporated by Guido Bitossi in 1921, though the family began making art pottery in the mid-19th century. In the 1930s, Londi came aboard, bringing with him a mindset that respected time-honored craft, yet looked also to the future. On the one hand, Londi’s perspective fostered the making of Bitossi’s popular whimsical cats, owls, horses and other animal figures, hand-shaped and -carved and finished in a rich azure glaze known as “Rimini Blue.”

But with his other hand, Londi reached out to thoughtful, experimental designers such as Sottsass. After hiring Sottsass to design ceramics for his New York imports company, Raymor, American entrepreneur Irving Richards connected the Milanese design polymath to Londi, who introduced Sottsass to ceramics in the 1950s.

During that decade, some 20 years before he founded the Memphis postmodern design collective in Milan, Sottsass used the Bitossi kilns to create timeless works that manifest both primitive forms and modern geometries. In later decades, Bitossi would welcome new generations of designers, which have included such names as Ginevra Bocini and Karim Rashid.

While always looking forward, Bitossi is firm in their belief that mastery of craft is the first step towards beautiful design. As you will see from the works offered on these pages, that is a winning philosophy.

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