Fontana Arte. The light of modernity

The peculiarity of Italian design is to have changed the perception of the industrial object from a craft product reproduced in a serial form, to ‘open form’ of creativity that evolves and becomes the image of an era and a taste. An illuminating example is found in the history of Fontana Arte, a Milanese company that through the direction and creativity of two authentic masters such as Gio Ponti and Pietro Chiesa was able to interpret the evolution of taste and civil society, the evolution of “objects” of their lines that also capture the succession of social, cultural and artistic changes. From the Thirties to the Sixties, Fontana Arte changed its appearance from classical, decorative and upper middle class, to essential in the choice of solutions that combined functionality and impeccable style, to spatial in the renewed and innovative relationship with light, which merged the industrial product in all its most modern meanings: function, shape, space, object, seriality of the product, always according to the canons of high quality construction and materials.
Max Ingrand, master glassmaker and French decorator, capable of creating true design classics, left an indelible mark in the decade 1954-1964 of the artistic direction of the Fontana Arte, which sees a luminous element as an integral part of the living space: will be present in the catalog with a pair of lamps mod. 2228 of 1965 with an estimate of 7,000 – 9,000 euros (lot 84).

Lot 84. Max Ingrand, Pair of table lamps mod. 2228. Brushed nickel-plated metal, frosted crystal, ground solid crystal. Production Fontana Arte, Italy, 1965 ca. Estimate € 7,000 – 9,000

Lot 84. Max Ingrand, Pair of table lamps mod. 2228. Brushed nickel-plated metal, frosted crystal, ground solid crystal. Production Fontana Arte, Italy, 1965 ca. Estimate € 7,000 – 9,000 (detail of the crystal base)