Richard Ginori - Figure - Erma (2) - Porcelain

Richard Ginori - Gio Ponti - Erma

A rare pair of Gio Ponti Erme is offered at auction, produced by Richard Ginori.

The statuettes are unmarked as they came from the display case of one of Richard Ginori’s shops where pieces not intended for sale, merely for display, were sometimes placed. The pieces come from the private collection of a Richard Ginori executive, active in the Eighties and Nineties.

In perfect condition, measures 11x6 cm.

The ermine paperweight is part of a series of small plastic objects, also including male figures and double-faced ermine holding menu and place cards, related to the series L’amore dell’antichità. If the menu holders and place card toppers were designed by Ponti in 1924 and modeled by Zambini, the idea for the paperweight was conceived the following year (Livia Frescobaldi Malenchini, Maria Teresa Giovannini, Oliva Rucellai, Gio Ponti. La collezione del Museo Richard-Ginori della Manifattura di Doccia, Maretti editore, 2015, p. 218). In this case, Ponti first created the male model with a beard, then the beardless one and the female variant, as evidenced by the presence at the Second International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Monza of only the male prototype (Pompeo Molmenti, Opere scelte. Seconda Mostra Internazionale delle Arti Decorative Monza – 1925, Gea, Milano 1925, p. 58). The reference to antiquity is not given only by the subject depicted but also by the frontal hieraticity and the idealization of the faces, treated through extreme formal synthesis and a clear graphic rendering especially in the detailing of the hairstyles and beard, which recalls Etruscan sculpture. If the plastic modeling of the different busts did not foresee variants, the application of gold leaf allowed for several alternatives depending on the area to be decorated and the possible motif created by polishing the precious metal with a agate tip.

Very rare object.