Guido Baldini, base marked “GB Rimini,” 25 cm

The Modernist beauty here — with its dynamic and quasi-alien Etruscan warriors over a superb glaze of red, blue and black — was made between 1959-1964 by Guido Baldini, a ceramic artist who is practically unknown outside of Italy. Amazingly enough, this gorgeous vase represents only a brief period in a career which saw his style move from traditional Italian, to Art Deco, to Modernism, to Abstract, and finally to Minimalism. My guess is his products were so popular in Italy that he never needed to export them to make a living, which explains why he doesn’t (in the ceramics collecting world outside of Italy) rate the attention shown his contemporaries Guido Gambone or Marcello Fantoni today. His signature doesn’t help; with his “GB” looking like “CB,” tracing a piece back to him is a real challenge. Thankfully, a wonderful book (above) aiding identification of his works is easily available online. The only hitch? To collect his works, you’ll probably need to book a flight to Italy.