TALL ALVINO BAGNI FISH-MOUTH VASE FOR RAYMOR

A beautiful fish mouth vase with a bulbous top and empire silhouette designed by Alvino Bagni for Raymor.  It is decorated with horizontal stripes in shades of orange, black, and brown and accented with raised yellow volcanic rings. ALVINO BAGNI was born in 1919 in Lastra a Signa in the environs of Florence.  His boyhood and adolescence were spent without his father; as a communist, he had been exiled under Italian fascism.  The young Bagni learned the basics of drawing and clay modeling under the tutelage of artist/sculptor Torello Santini. Bagni's interest in ceramics—a locally important industry—grew, and he found work at Arnaldo Pugi's furnace in Ponte a Signa.  Following WWII, Pugi helped him finance the opening of his own studio, BAGNI CERAMICHE, where several family members, including his wife Gina, were employed.  Gina would work alongside Bagni throughout his career.  3,500 elephant-head plates bearing the slogan "I like Ike" were manufactured for export during Eisenhower's 1