Added on January 13, 2010. This Piero Fornasetti box is now for sale in my booth on Bonanzle.This box is a double treasure find. Bought it awhile back, don't remember where, but the enameled metal sleeve with its bright design of pipes caught my eye and I liked the sliding style of the box. No markings but knew it was probably made mid 20th century and looked Italian. Pretty much a gut feeling buy; the other half says those are my best ones! Eventually it is time once again to rotate my "neat little boxes" collection. If I don't sell a few, there's no room to display the new finds. I price it and put it in my space at the local antique mall. It sits unbought for about 2 months and then one day I get a call from a good friend. My friend happens to specialize in mid-century modern and she advises that I go get the box immediately and do some research using the keywords, Fornasetti, box and pipes. The immediately was stressed because of the price I had on the box and what my friend felt the actual value might be.
Yes, I got myself up and went to get the box. Yes, the research showed that this appeared to be a box by Piero Fornasetti. Unluckily, my box was missing the red felt usually stuck to the bottom to guard table tops which would have had an impressed seal with the Fornasetti name and Made in Italy. But, research gave me a site about Fornasetti that is run by his son in Italy. Some Fornasetti designs are still being made on a limited basis by the family. Because of unauthorized reproductions, and reissues, the site offers to authentic Fornasetti items if you provide them with photos. I received a really nice email from Mr. Fornasetti's assistant saying that this was indeed produced by his father dating to the 1950's or 1960's.
Double thanks to my friend Elle, better known as austinmodern.com! Number one for refinding the treasure among my treasures and Number two for telling me about it instead of buying it and making it her thrift store diva find of the week!
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