Fornasetti plate-original - made by Fornasetti factory -vintage unused #256

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Fornasetti plate-original - made by Fornasetti factory -vintage unused #256:
$335.00

My father was friends with Piero Fornasetti. He was a long time collector, starting in the 1950s. In the late 70s / early 80s, my father, who ran a boutique US design company, became Fornasetti’s sole US agent. He wound up buying almost the entire inventory of the Milan warehouse, and giving the Fornasetti company substantial orders for plates, furniture, trays, metal ware (toleware) etc, essentially bringing us to the revival of Fornasetti we all know today.

My father then devoted a portion of his home furnishings business to the renaissance of the Fornasetti Studio, eventually selling Fornasetti’s larger work throughout the US via to the trade furniture showrooms. The china and smaller objects were sold through Barney’s, Neiman Marcus, Gumps, and numerous ‘mid-century’ antiques dealers, just as the mid-century craze was beginning to take root.

When my father retired from business in the early 90s, quite a bit of the inventory was sold to collectors at sale, mostly through Christie’s and a few pieces via David Rago, both noted mid-century sale sources. The rest of the inventory went into my temperature controlled art and collectibles warehouse (which is my enterprise*), placed into the record storage room, along with the [paper] business records from several other companies. In 2002, a wall of file cabinets was put in front of the 10 or so crates of Fornasetti materials, and we forgot that we had stored the boxes for him!

Just this year, as we were reviewing our oldest business records, we remembered that the wall of file cabinets was not against the actual building’s wall, moved the cabinets, and found this treasure trove!

THESE ARE THE ORIGINAL RICHARD GINORI CHINA BLANKS, MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR FORNASETTI, NOT THE ROSENTHAL LICENSED VERSIONS. THESE WERE FABRICATED IN THE MILAN STUDIO BY THE ORIGINAL FORNASETTI ARTISANS. The Rosenthal iterations are nice, but these are the original Fornasetti versions, can I say it again - manufactured by Fornasetti\'s artisans in the Fornasetti factory - a very big difference.

They are in their original boxes, which might have inventory tags on them, but other than that, are as manufactured by Fornasetti in Milan.

Please note that my photos have a lot of glare in them; I tried to take each photo flat on, so as not to distort the image; but the downside is that the curve picks up glare. Please let me know if you\'d like further images.

Note - this particular plate, #256 - is a self-portrait of Mr. Fornasetti!

Please feel free to ask any questions. And please see other Fornasetti listings - many plates and trays will be added within a few days - ask if there\'s a specific one you\'re interested in.Seeother items!

*if you are ever tempted to go into a similar business, note that you will store all of your friends and relatives miscellany...don’t let anything get stuck behind old file cabinets!