Angelo Lelli Lelii Ceiling Lamp from the 50's

Name: Angelo Lelli Lelii Ceiling Lamp from the 50's
Brand: Angelo Lelii
Price: 3217.82 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Arredoluce ceiling chandelier, c. 1955 production, very rare model by Angelo Lelli (Lelii). Italian designer-entrepreneur Angelo Lelli--also spelled "Lelii" as some of his signatures read--founded the innovative lighting company Arredoluce in Manza, Italy, in the years around World War II. Little information about Lelli's biography has survived, but according to some sources he lived from 1911 to 1979. The designer was an active and decisive figure in Italy's postwar design boom years, and is considered today as a key personality of the modernist era of lighting design, on par with his more successful contemporaries such as Gino Sarfatti of Arteluce and Giuseppe Ostuni of Oluce. According to many sources, Lelli began designing lamps in his basement before the war, and achieved his first success in 1946, when his first three designs were included in the pages of Domus magazine, originally founded by design icon Gio Ponti and at the time under the editorship of Italian architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers. The magazine promoted the pioneers of design and architecture in Italy who embraced the new functionalist trend. The following year, Lelli founded Arredoluce (although some sources claim it already existed in 1939). As the company's director and designer, Lelli was instrumental in making Italian design known internationally; through Arredoluce, the designer was responsible for producing hundreds of ingenious collections of lamps that are still highly sought after in the vintage market today.

Creator:

Angelo Lelii (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 6.7 in (17 cm)Diameter: 11.42 in (29 cm)

Style:

Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Brass,Metal,Plexiglass

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

1950-1959

Date of Manufacture:

circa 1956

Condition:

Seller Location:

bari, IT

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU4076331472512

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Shop All Angelo Lelii

Angelo Lelii

Angelo Lelii’s energetic and imaginative floor lamps, sconces and chandeliers often reflected his singular personality — whimsical but practical. He is responsible for some of the most delightfully eye-pleasing but functional works in the history of Italian mid-century modern lighting design.

Lelii was born Paolo Angelo Lelii in the seaport town of Ancona and moved to Milan when he was quite young. Not much is known about his early life — online resources frequently have his last name misspelled “Lelli” — except that he studied at the Superior Institute of Industrial Art in nearby Monza.

While there was no shortage of pioneering work being done in the field of mid-century modern lighting design, Lelii was a visionary whose dream was to create technologically advanced lighting that embodied the simple lines of modern design but would be defined by his own imaginative twists. In 1943, Lelii opened his first workshop in a tiny basement in Monza, under the name Arredoluce. A few years later, he designed the single-light, bent-arm Tris floor lamp. Later that year, he exhibited his Triennale floor lamp at the Milan Triennale VIII and garnered wide acclaim. This iconic, slender lamp features three adjustable arms with enameled aluminum shades.

Lelii’s sculptural fixtures in brass and cast iron appeared in the acclaimed design journal Domus, and he embarked on high-profile collaborations with Italian modernist legends such as Gio Ponti — a giant of architecture and design as well as a founder of Domus — Memphis Group member Ettore Sottsass Jr. and the brothers Castiglioni (formally known as Achille, Pier Giacomo and Livio).

Massive success followed for Arredoluce from the late 1950s and into the 1960s. For Lelii, there was his seminal Stella ceiling lamp, featuring opaque, acid-etched glass globe shades; his minimalist Cobra table lamp, which was one of the world’s first low voltage light fixtures; and his aptly named Eye floor lamp. Lelii continued to oversee design and production at his revolutionary lighting firm until his death in 1979.

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