Kartell 1968 Catalog: Lampade e Arredamento

November 1968 catalog for the iconic Italian design company Kartell, divided into two sections: Lamps and Furnishings. Square 8vo with printed plasticized wrappers, 55 pages, lavishly illustrated in both color and black-and-white, with text in English, French, and German. Art direction by Luisa Sturme and Grazia Varisco. Founded in 1949 by chemical engineer Giulio Castelli and his wife, the architect and industrial designer Anna Castelli, Kartell plied the cutting edge of innovation in the use of plastics in the production of high-quality yet affordable objects for domestic usage. Anna Castelli’s designs for Kartell embodied the neo-rationalist ideals of reduction, functionality, and rigorous beauty that she imbibed from her colleague Franco Albini and as one of the first women to graduate from the Milan Polytechnic Institute. By the end of the 1960’s the Kartell roster included such luminaries as Achille and Piergiacomo Castigliioni, Joe Colombo, Marco Zanuso, Richard Sapper, Giotto Stoppino, Sergio Asti, Nanda Vigo, Gae Aulenti, Roberto Menghi, Gino Colombini, Gian Franco Frattini, and Albert Rosselli, along with lesser-known designers such as Eugenio Gentile, Gian Emilio Peiro and Anna Monti, Marcello Said, and Luigi Bandini. Curatorial information includes line drawings, materials, and colors offered. Slight lean to spine. Gentle bumping to extremities. Creasing down front wrapper, with light paint marks.