Extremely Rare and Large Mid-Century Modern Sputnik Chandelier, twenty-three arm, Italian, ca. 1960. Ht: 70” Dia: 55”

The iconic Sputnik design was inspired by the first satellite to orbit the earth in 1957. This Soviet Union satellite was named “Sputnik” and was the size of a beach ball, with 4 long antennae emulating from a center sphere. It is believed that the Sputnik was part of the push to create the United States NASA space program in 1958.

This Mid-Century Modern Chandelier became a recognizable part of the design periods known as the “Atomic Age” from about 1940 -1960, when concerns of nuclear war dominated the West, and the “Space Age” period from 1958 to the early 1970’s, culminating in the July 1969 moon landing.