Rare c. 1960s Fornasetti Double "Le Arpie Gentili" Dish carved spoons an Oblate missionary

an Oblate missionary

I can't find any other sets out there more sale

and bands of pattern around neck and base

There is one area on the interior where the bark has come away from the wood

with the main frame a sort of mellowed oxblood and the decorative frame a very mellow gold

Rare c. 1960s Fornasetti Double "Le Arpie Gentili" Dish carved spoons an Oblate missionaryIn the 1960s, Fornasetti produced a series called Le Arpie Gentili (the genteel harpy) featuring the heads of famous Italian Opera singers on the bodies of song birds in cages a clever take on the mythological half woman, half bird personification of a storm wind. There seems to have been a set of eight plates produced with single "harpies" but this oval plate with a pair of them seems much rarer (I found just two out there anywhere like this one,