Aldo Londi & Natale Mancioli Biography
Aldo Londi, born in Montelupo Fiorentino in 1911, began working at a very young age in a local ceramic factory. After completing his apprenticeship, he worked at the Montelupo factory "Ceramiche Artistiche F.lli Fanciullacci" until 1935, when he moved to the "Bitossi Ceramiche" factory. At the end of the Second World War, after having spent a long period of imprisonment in South Africa, where he set up a primitive furnace, he returned to Italy and resumed working for "Bitossi", where he remained until 1976, frequenting it occasionally even after having gone to pension. In 1946 he was appointed artistic director of the factory and, faithful to a serial conception of the ceramic product, started a production of highly creative and modern furnishing objects. His works for the "Bitossi" factory participate in numerous important exhibitions in the sector including the Prague and Dusseldorf fairs, the Milan Triennale, the International Competition of Contemporary Ceramics in Faenza and the Biennial of Ceramic Art in Sesto Fiorentino. He left the management of the factory in 1976. Proof of the high level of quality achieved is the fact that numerous works designed and created by Aldo Londi for the "Bitossi" factory, called "Ceramiche Flavia" since the Seventies, are marketed by the "Studio Rosenthal " all over the world. Aldo Londi died in Montelupo Fiorentino in 2003. Natale Mancioli was born in Montelupo Fiorentino in 1900. After working in various Tuscan factories in 1946 he founded the ceramic factory "Mancioli & C." based in Montelupo Fiorentino where he produces traditional style ceramics and copies from the ancient. In 1966 he left the management to his son Luciano who opened a factory in Montepascio and began an important work of technological, technical and artistic modernization. Natale Mancioli died in 1981.
