Objects for Objects

These are found objects that the artist intervenes. They are based on the fantasies and representations that can arise when subconscious acts are performed. They have a symbolic function and leave no room for formal concerns, but depend only on the imagination of each person.

Many pieces could arguably be considered the most Surreal object that Dalí created. During his lifetime, the artist created a number of thought-provoking works like the Aphrodisiac Telephone, a mixed media sculpture that featured a lobster perched on a rotary telephone, and Surrealist Object Functioning Symbolically, a woman's shoe positioned in a glass of milk in a wooden frame accompanied by a box of sugar lumps, a spoon and an erotic photograph. Shop an assortment of Salvador Dalí art from some of the world's top galleries on 1stDibs.

Kartell started making plastic objects shortly after its founding in 1949. The company began as an industrial design firm, producing useful items like ski racks for automobiles and laboratory equipment designed to replace breakable glass with sturdy plastic. Even as companies like Olivetti and Vespa made Italian design popular in the 1950s, typewriters and scooters remained relatively costly. Kartell founders Giulio Castelli and Anna Ferrieri wanted to provide Italian consumers with affordable, stylish goods. They launched a housewares division in 1953, making lighting fixtures, kitchen tools and accessories from colorful molded plastic. Buoyed by its success in the home goods market, Kartell introduced its Habitat division in 1963. On 1stDibs, shop a wide range of Kartell furniture.

Najeonchilgi is a crafting method where colorful pieces of shellfish are inlaid on an object. For more than 2,000 years, Korean artisans have used it to produce furniture like cabinets and tables and small decorative objects like wooden boxes. Find a collection of inlaid wood furniture and decorative objects on 1stDibs.

The inkstone was the most precious and permanent object in a Japanese writing set. It is a mortar used for mixing dry ink with water for the purposes of writing. You'll find a selection of Japanese writing boxes on 1stDibs.