Designer: Attributed to Piero Fornasetti (1913 – 1988)

Item: Bucciarelli bookends

Manufactured by: Bucciarelli Milano or Piero Fornasetti

Country of origin: Italy

Year made: Circa late 1950s to 60s

Materials: Steel, enamel and screen-printed decoration, with felt bottoms

Dimensions:  7 ½” x 5 ½” x 4”

Condition: Very good

Description: Here is a very rarely found pair of Bucciarelli metal bookends with a swords and armor motif. We have only see a few pairs of bookends by this firm. Almost all the Bucciarelli objects found are coaster sets which are nearly identical to Fornasetti coast sets. Each bookend retains an original Bucciarelli Milano sticker, and one retains its price label from Dayton’s department store.  Dayton’s was an American department store chain, established in 1902 in Minneapolis, Minnesota that handled higher-end merchandise in the upper Midwest.  We know these were made prior to 1969, because that is when Dayton’s merged with Hudson’s, a Michigan store, and changed its name to Dayton-Hudson.  The company eventually morphed into what is now Target. 

There is only limited and occasionally conflicting information available about the firm Bucciarelli Milano found on the Internet.  Some reputable antiques dealers state it was a department store in Milan who commissioned Piero Fornasetti to produce objects for sale in their store during the 1950s and 60s.  Based on the objects we have seen and handled by Bucciarelli Milano, they do appear in almost every respect to be designed and manufactured by Fornasetti. Bucciarelli Milano’ bookends and slide boxes are identical in materials and construction, and nearly identical in sizes and designs to documented Fornasetti objects.  Even the Bucciarelli Milano label is suggestive of Fornasetti, using a similar styled paintbrush motif.  However, the paintbrush is on an artist’s palate, opposed to a hand holding the paintbrush used by Fornasetti. 

We believe it is unlikely that Bucciarelli Milano are period knockoffs, because Fornasetti was, and still is, very protective of their brand and designs.  It is hard to believe that Fornasetti would have allowed another firm in Milan, its same location, to knock them off.  Another reputable antiques dealer in Europe has offered a theory that during some periods when Fornasetti was struggling financially, he sold some of his designs to Bucciarelli Milano for them to manufacture and sell. While this seems to be a plausible theory, the materials, construction and size of the objects suggests they were manufactured by Fornasetti or under his supervision.  The only differences we note are that some of the screen-printed designs seem subtly less crisp, and in general the decorations lack an overall richness or visual fullness seen in documented Fornasetti pieces.  Nevertheless, these metal Bucciarelli Milano pieces are fine objects worthy of collecting.