DesignerItalian
Aldo Londi
4 active items
The blue is unmistakable: a deep, saturated glaze the colour of the Adriatic on a clear day, carved through with sgraffito lines that reveal the rough clay beneath. Aldo Londi's Rimini Blu series, produced at the Bitossi ceramics factory in Montelupo Fiorentino from the mid-1950s, became one of mid-century Italian design's most recognisable signatures, and it is the work that draws collectors to his name at Nordic auction houses today.
Londi was born in Montelupo Fiorentino on August 4, 1911, into a town where ceramic production dates to the Renaissance. At eleven he entered an apprenticeship at Fratelli Fanciullacci, the district's most distinguished manufacturer, attending the factory in the evenings while completing his elementary education. He later studied at the Institute of Art in Faenza, Italy's premier centre for ceramic education. In 1935 he moved to the Bitossi factory, but the war intervened. Taken prisoner and held in South Africa, he returned to Montelupo in 1946 and was appointed artistic director of Bitossi, a position he would hold for over fifty years until his death in 2003.
The Rimini Blu collection, launched in the mid-1950s and expanded from 1959, comprised over 150 individual designs: vases, jugs, bowls, ashtrays, candleholders, and animal figurines, all finished in Londi's proprietary "Persiano Blue" glaze and decorated with sgraffito patterns that gave each piece a tactile, almost archaeological quality. The technique combined glossy smooth glaze with the coarse grit of the clay body, creating a satisfying contrast between refined surface and raw material. Distributed in America through the Raymor import brand, Rimini Blu found its way into modernist interiors across the Atlantic and remains in production today.
Londi's output extended far beyond a single colour. Over his career he designed more than 1,000 individual objects for Bitossi, including the Akitectura series of minimalist animal figurines in monochromatic black, white, or platinum finishes, a stark counterpoint to Rimini Blu's exuberance. His collaboration with Ettore Sottsass, which began in 1958, proved formative for both. Sottsass, who would later found the Memphis Design Group, considered Londi an important mentor. Together they produced works that fused primitive forms with modern geometries.
Londi exhibited at the Prague International Trade Fair, the Dusseldorf International Fair, and the Milan Triennale. A posthumous anthological exhibition, "Good Morning Maestro!", was held in Montelupo Fiorentino in 2007, and the Bitossi Archive Museum opened in 2021 with his designs at its centre.
On Auctionist, 147 Londi items are indexed, with ceramics and porcelain accounting for 121 pieces. Swedish houses including Palsgaard Kunstauktioner, Halsinglands Auktionsverk, and Formstad Auktioner handle the bulk of trade. Bitossi figurines reach SEK 6,400, while Rimini Blu pieces, from hedgehogs to large vases, trade in the SEK 1,000-3,000 range. For Scandinavian collectors of mid-century Italian ceramics, Londi's work offers the pleasure of owning a piece of genuine design history at approachable prices.