Incollect Magazine - Issue 15

78 www.incollect.com lighting, he also designed accessible objects intended for everyday domestic life, approaching even the most modest commissions with imagination and technical ingenuity. Among the most charming is a lamp designed for A.V. Mazzega in 1960 that incorporates a flower vase into its structure. A gently curved, double-layered glass shade rests upon a hollow vessel designed to hold fresh flowers, uniting illumination and nature within a single object. The gesture is deceptively simple, yet entirely characteristic of Nason’s ability to elevate everyday rituals through thoughtful design. Lopez considers it one of the designer’s most poetic inventions. “The simple gesture of adding a vase to a lamp introduces a poetic dimension into the object, combining light and nature within a single design piece,” he says. “The illumination becomes warm and enveloping, while the vase adds life and temporality.” For Lopez, that understated humanity explains why Nason’s work continues to resonate with collectors more than half a century after its creation. “These are lamps that surprise as much as they seduce,” he says. “Their simple lines, contemporary spirit, and balance between form and function allow them to transcend trends and enter into dialogue with interiors from any era.” That observation perhaps best captures Carlo Nason’s achievement. Although his work emerged from the extraordinary traditions of Murano glassmaking, he refused to be constrained by them. Instead, he reimagined the language of Venetian glass through the optimism of postwar modernism, creating objects that were technologically adventurous, rigorously crafted, and profoundly humane. Few designers succeeded so completely in reconciling innovation with craftsmanship, or modernity with tradition. His legacy is not simply a remarkable body of lighting, but a lasting demonstration that the most enduring forms of design illuminate both the spaces we inhabit and the ways we imagine the future. Right: The LS 132 pendant light and matching wall lights with iridescent crystal discs. These vintage models were produced, according to Nason, through a process that is no longer allowed, making these pieces rare works of art. Designed for Mazzega, circa 1960s. Available from Società Antiquaria on Incollect.com. Photos: Courtesy of Società Antiquaria. Above: “The discs also cannot be made anymore. They were produced in crystal, made as a soffiatura (blown piece) and then opened and etched, burnt with an acid that is not permitted anymore. They turned opaque like this, a bit fluorescent, but it is not possible to make them now. I have tried to make them many times, but they don’t turn out like they used to.” — Carlo Nason, 2019 Center: A futuristic tower floor lamp in interlocking, alternating smoked and clear ghiacco glass plates. Textured to resemble cracked, melting ice, it casts an intriguing play of light and shadow and warm ambient light. Both a sculptural object and a floor lamp, it was designed for Mazzega in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of Stanislas Reboul.