Vintage Mid-Century Modern, 1950s Italian Majolica Griffin Chambersticks, Hand-Painted Ceramic Pair

Details

Description

Pair of vintage 1950s Italian majolica chambersticks, each featuring a sculptural griffin handle with a detailed lion-like head, open mouth, … Read more Pair of vintage 1950s Italian majolica chambersticks, each featuring a sculptural griffin handle with a detailed lion-like head, open mouth, and scrolling body. The hand-painted tin-glazed ceramics are richly decorated in pink, yellow, blue, orange, and green, with ribbed mushroom- or seed-pod-form candle cups and low oval drip trays. Folk-inspired blue-and-white borders and painted foliage add to their colorful, whimsical character. Marked Italy.

The griffin-form chamberstick is rooted in a much older European decorative tradition, with celebrated 18th-century examples designed by Sir William Chambers and subsequently reproduced in a variety of materials, including ceramic. These 1950s Italian majolica examples reinterpret that historic form through the exuberant colors, hand-painted decoration, and whimsical character of postwar Italian pottery, making them a charming mid-century revival of an earlier classical design tradition. See less