Umbrella stand, Glazed Majolica. This early umbrella stand is a good example of the surrealist influenced work from Ambrogio Pozzii.
Ambrogio Pozzi was an important Italian 20th century designer, working in ceramic, glass, plastic, and metals. He collaborated with prominent designers of his time including, Gio Ponti, Pierre Cardin and Joe Columbo. He was good friends with the important Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala. Bruno Mari paid tribute to Pozzi in descrirbing his ethos this way..”Simplifying is difficult; complicating things is very easy”. Mari spoke of Pozzi’s dedication to the development of form for use, without being influenced by current fashion and style. Ambrogio Pozzi worked for his father’s firm Ceramica Franco Pozzi, Rosenthal of Selb for twenty years, Reidel of Austria, the Rinascente department store, Alitalia Airlines, Harvey-Guzzini, Padova Argenti (silver), Zojirushi of Osaka, Japan, Toray of Tokyo and many more.
In 2000 he won the second annual prize of the Museum MIDeC Museo Internazionale Design Ceramico at Cerro di Laveno Mombello, Italy and a catolog was produced. The catolog contains essays by the president of the museum, Marcello Morandini, Ettore Sottsass both paying tribute to Ambrogio Pozzi.
This is the biography in that catalogue.
Ambrogio Pozzi was born in Varese, Italy in 1931. He went to a scientific high school and while starting his studies at university he spent a year at the Institute of Ceramics at Faenza, where he made connections with the most important artists of the sector. After graduatiion he turned his attention back to ceramics and returned to Faenza frequently for free courses to deepen his knowledge relative to the techniques in stoneware and glazes. Frrom 1950 he began working for his father’s company, Le Ceramica Franco Pozzi of Gallarate, Italy which is in the Lombardy region, province of Varese. He designed many objects for the company, not only in ceramics but also glass and wood. During this period he began to participate in ceramics competiitions with unique pieces as well as sets of pieces for which he won numerous prizes and recognition. This allowed him to travel abroad, visiting Denmark, Switzerland, England, France, Germany establishing relationships with artists and designers from these countries. He participated in many national and international shows by invitation in the USA, Central America, Brasil, Canada and eastern countries. His works appear in various museums in Italy and around the world.