Designer Desire: Celestino Piatti

Mosaic of Celestino Piatti designs | H is for Home

We’ve long had a soft spot for the illustrations of Celestino Piatti (1922-2007). He was a Swiss designer best known for his children’s book illustrations and poster and postage stamp designs.

For years, we’ve been hoping to happen across a pristine 1st edition 1965 copy of his Animal ABC in a charity shop somewhere. It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon – thankfully, you can get new copies online.

Celestino Piatti

Much of his work has distinctive thick, rough, black outlines with bright ‘colouring in’ – almost child-like but incredibly beautiful. He had a few motifs which he kept returning to again & again; owls, the sun with a face and cockerels.

Additional image credits

Artnet | Invaluable | Pinterest | Poster Gallery

O is for… Owl

"O is for... Owl" blog post banner

detail from a brown vintage pottery money box in the shape of an owl

These are the big eyes of our latest owl – in this case, a pottery money box.

pottery pan trivet / pot stand in the shape of an owl pottery pan trivet / pot stand in the shape of an owl

vintage tin money box with owl decoration vintage pottery mug with owl face in relief on the side

They never stay with us long as these feathered friends are consistently popular in our shop.

green glazed vintage owl figure produced by Lotus Pottery

Whether in the form of money boxes, mugs, pot stands, textile prints, pictures or book illustrations.

small vintage white lustre pottery figure in the shape of an owl small vintage Shelf Pottery owl figure

vintage white pottery mug with transfer printed owl figure brown vintage Hornsea Pottery mug with transfer printed owl decoration designed by John Clappison

We’ve blogged a fair few times about the great illustrator, Kenneth Townsend. He designed the cutest owl as part of his Menagerie series – apparently the owl was his favourite animal!

vintage Kenneth Townsend pottery owl tile

Another wonderful illustrator with a thing for owls was Celestino Piatti who once said, “You can draw an owl a thousand times, and never find out its secret”.

mosaic of vintage Celestino Piatti owl illustrations
image credit: Fishink

We’ve had a quick trawl on the web for some more owls – here are some favourites:

cover from vintage book, "A Book of Various Owls" by John Hollander, illustrated by Tomi Ungerer and published by W.W. Norton & Company in 1963
image credit: Vintage Kids” Books my Kid Loves

bright orange ceramic owl available from Anthropologie
Wise Ol’ Canister, Orange: £118 – Anthropologie

Happy owl open edition print by Matte Stephens on Etsy
Happy owl open edition print by Matte Stephens: $35 – Etsy

"day time owl" 3D art tutorial from mmmcrafts"night time owl" 3D art tutorial from mmmcrafts
image credit: mmmcrafts

vintage german matchbox cover with owl illustration
image credit: Shailesh Chavda