Designer: Robert Venturi (1925 - 2018) and Denise Scott Brown (b. 1931); Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.

Item: The Venturi Candlestick

Manufactured by: Cleto Munari for Swid Powell

Country of origin: Italy

Year made: 1984

Materials: Silverpate over brass

Dimensions: 10 ½” x 6 ½” x 6 ½”

Condition: Very good. Light surface scratches from polishing and some persistent tarnishing in the seams as is common with these sticks. It is not as visible in person as the photos show from the flash.

References: Tapert, Annette. SWID POWELL: Objects by Architects, Rizzoli (1990); Stern, Jewel, Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design, Yale Stern University Press (2005); Brownlee, De Long and Hiesinger, Out of the Ordinary, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Associates: Architecture, Urbanism, Design (2001).

Description: These candlesticks are considered by some the holy grail of Swid Powell designs and production pieces. Although these were originally listed as being designed by Robert Venturi, they are actually designed by both Venturi and his wife Denise Scott Brown who share an architecture practice in Philadelphia, PA where they reside.

We believe these are an early production, because the Venturi signature and Swid Powell marks are on the bases, but most of the others we have seen have the marks appear on the underside of the bobeches, where the Cleto Munari silver-plate marks appear. The only others we have seen with this location of the signature are the pair in the Yale University Gallery of Art, which were a gift from Nan Swid along with hundreds of other examples and many prototypes and early pieces.

These can be found in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Yale University Gallery of Art where they are permanent display, and other public collections. These candlesticks can be very hard to find and generally quite expensive. Examples have sold for up to $2,000 at recent Wright auctions.