Piero Fornasetti “12 Mesi, 12 Soli” Porcelain Coaster, November, Sun in a Wine Bottle, Framed

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Piero Fornasetti “12 Mesi, 12 Soli” Porcelain Coaster, November, Sun in a Wine Bottle, Framed
Milan, circa 1960–1965

This porcelain … Read more Piero Fornasetti “12 Mesi, 12 Soli” Porcelain Coaster, November, Sun in a Wine Bottle, Framed
Milan, circa 1960–1965

This porcelain coaster by Piero Fornasetti represents November in his 12 Mesi, 12 Soli (Twelve Months, Twelve Suns) series. The sun is enclosed within a great bottle of new wine, its face submerged in the red wine that fills the lower half, the stopper crowned in yellow and the neck hung with a label inscribed “Vino Novo”; the bottle stands among palms and plants beneath a hatched sky of dark cloud bands. Printed in Fornasetti’s signature engraved black line and heightened with vivid color, the coaster is float-mounted in a fabric-covered shadowbox frame with an aubergine mount.

The new wine belongs to the feast of San Martino on 11 November, when by Italian custom the season’s wine is first tasted, as the proverb has it, “A San Martino ogni mosto diventa vino” (at San Martino every must becomes wine).

Framed and ready to hang, the coaster is well suited to a bar, wine room, kitchen or dining room wall, and works equally on a bookshelf or desk; it may be shown alone or grouped with other months of the series.

Dimensions:
Coaster diameter: 4⅛ inches (10.5 cm)

Marks:
Printed to the reverse in black with the hand-and-paintbrush device painting a sun, “Soli di” above and “Fornasetti · Milano / Made in Italy” alongside; a photograph of the mark is mounted on the backboard of the frame.

Provenance:
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition:
The coaster is in excellent condition, the colors bright and the surface well preserved. It is float-mounted in a fabric-covered shadowbox frame with an aubergine mount and glazed with UV-protective museum glass.

References:
Patrick Mauriès, Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams (London: Thames & Hudson, 1991).
Piero Fornasetti, Il Lunario del Sole (Milan, 1942; reissued by Fornasetti, 2022).

Historical Context
The twelve suns of the 12 Mesi, 12 Soli series originate in Il Lunario del Sole, an almanac Piero Fornasetti published in 1942 with twelve original drawings, one sun for each month, produced as a gift for friends. He later translated the drawings to porcelain, first as dinner plates and then as smaller coasters, and the humanized sun became one of the most enduring motifs in a repertoire of more than 13,000 designs; the atelier reissued the images as hand-knotted tapestries in 2010 and reprinted the almanac in 2022.

Fornasetti (1913–1988) studied at the Brera Academy in Milan and was encouraged by the architect Gio Ponti to apply his engraved line to furniture and objects, a partnership that shaped postwar Italian design. Small printed pieces such as this coaster, uniting his graphic imagination with everyday utility, show the playful sophistication that has kept his work continuously in demand.

(Ref: NY10267B-6-nkpr) See less