1950s Vintage Alvino Bagni “Sea Garden” Italian Sea Horse Pottery Sculpture

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This is an exceptional mid-century modern Italian pottery sculpture by Alvino Bagni for Raymor in the highly desirable “Sea Garden” … Read more This is an exceptional mid-century modern Italian pottery sculpture by Alvino Bagni for Raymor in the highly desirable “Sea Garden” series. This particular sculpture is extremely rare, and is not only very striking due to the subject matter but is also quite stylish and unique.

Alvino Bagni (1919-2000) is right up there with Aldo Londi (Head Designer at Bitossi) and Gambone as one of best Italian ceramic designers whose work was imported by Raymor.
Bagni was taken under the wing of Londi in the early part of his career. Bagni did work at Bitossi
for a few years in Florence, Italy before opening his own studio in 1956 in Lastra a Signa, on the outskirts of Florence, called Bagni Ceramiche. The vast majority of Bagni’s work was for the U.S. Market, and he even worked with Raymor competitor Rosenthal-Netter, just as Bitossi did. Bagni did a stunning array of widely different designs for Raymor and Rosenthal-Netter, and because of that it can be hard to pinpoint his work since it can vary so greatly. Early pieces sometimes have a floral theme, pieces of the early 1950s show the influence of Aldo Londi, then you have some very individualistic styles and forms that really represent the best of Bagni’s work, with stripes, geometric patterns and bold lava type glazes as some of the more common themes. Some of his more modernist, geometric pieces have been mis-attributed as Ettore Sottsass’ work. An easy way to date Bagni’s work is the type of clay used, red clay was used from the late 1940s-1950s before a finer white clay came into use in the 1960’s. Two hallmarks that signifies Bagni’s work are first he was very experimental with his glazes coming up with some really radical combinations and colors schemes. For example, Bagni’s “sea garden” glaze, is an unusual mix of turquoise, blue, green, yellow, browns and blacks, and is an excellent example of his experimentation. Secondly, are the metal inclusions in Bagni’s work, which are not typically used in any other of Raymor’s ceramic artists. Bagni like to include metal rings or other small metal pieces with his ceramic designs. Bagni was also fond of “wax resist” technique. See less