Bosa

Bosa makes no furniture. The workshop shapes and decorates ceramics by hand: sculptures, vases, wall masks, tableware. The catalogue holds three families, Sculture, Tavola and Complementi d'arredo.

Italo Bosa founded the workshop in 1976 at Borso del Grappa in the Veneto, directly downstream of the ceramic tradition of Bassano del Grappa. It has stayed in the family, and Francesca Bosa has been art director since 1994. Two things define the work: precious metals brushed on by hand, gold, platinum and copper, fixed in a firing the company puts at 720 degrees, and a glaze range formulated in-house, which means colours no other workshop reproduces.

The business model is unusual for a maker this size. Bosa manufactures but does not design. More than eighty designers and studios appear on its site, among them Patricia Urquiola, Luca Nichetto, Nika Zupanc and Ionna Vautrin. Jaime Hayon's Hopebird, painted in 24-carat gold on some versions, is the most recognisable piece. Elena Salmistraro's Primates monkey vases date from 2017.

Artopia carries Bosa in Geneva. These are accent pieces: they punctuate a scheme rather than build it, and because firing is unpredictable the runs stay deliberately short.