Provenance
Mario Lattes, conference room, Lattes Publishing House, Turin
Gifted by the above to an employee of the Lattes Publishing House, Turin
Thence by descent
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Literature
Anne Bony, Les années 50, Paris, 1982, p. 315
Galerie Denys Bosselet, Carlo Mollino 1905/1973, Premier Designer, Dernier Artisan des Années '50, Paris, 1984, n.p.
Derek E. Ostergard, ed., Makhintosh to Mollino, Fifty Years of Design, exh. cat., Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, 1984, no. 60
Fulvio Ferrari, Carlo Mollino, Cronaca, Turin, 1985, p. 121, fig. 199
Giovanni Brino, Carlo Mollino, Munich, 1987, p. 110
Rossella Colombari, Carlo Mollino Catalogo Del Mobili-Furniture Catalogue, Milan, 2005, p. 80, fig. 112
Giovanni Brino, Carlo Mollino: Architecture as Autobiography, Milan, 2005, fig. 347
Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari, The Furniture of Carlo Mollino, New York, 2006, p. 172, figs. 322-23, p. 228
Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari, eds., Carlo Mollino Arabesques, exh. cat., Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Milan, 2007, p. 91, fig. 128 for a technical drawing, p. 92, fig. 131 for an image
Catalogue Essay
The present chairs are registered in the library of the Museo Casa Mollino, Turin, as numbers CM 323-1 and CM 323-2.

Phillips wishes to thank Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari, Museo Casa Mollino, Turin, for their assistance with the cataloguing of the present lot.

Chairs from the conference room of the Lattes Publishing House, Turin, 1951
by Fulvio Ferrari

Among the few interiors Carlo Mollino conceived were projects for two brave editors: Vladi Orengo, who fearlessly published art books during the 1940s whilst Turin was being heavily bombed, and Mario Lattes, the director of Lattes Publishing House, which published books by Simone Weil and Theodor Adorno, among others. Mario Lattes was, among other things, a painter, and his friendship with Carlo Mollino was characterized by high intellectual exchange. In fact, Mollino contributed to the journal Galleria Arti e Lettere, founded by Lattes in 1953. When asked to design the interior of the new headquarters of the Lattes Publishing House, their reciprocal respect and understanding drove the architect to submit to his client some of his most creative designs, confident they would be able to reach consensus and find the necessary financial resources. In fact, Mollino chose avant-garde materials for the offices, such as Fibrosil, metallic modular units, and bent plywood – materials which were at the time complicated to work with and of high production value.

The conference room, which was also used as an art exhibition room, featured at its center a spectacular table made of bent plywood, surrounded by twelve chairs which were also executed in this new material and upholstered with white Resinfex. It is interesting to note that while the other furnishings from the Lattes Publishing House were made of solid wood with simple structural frames, Mario Lattes’s own office furniture included refined armchairs in bent plywood with sculpted armrests, as well as a large Fibrosil bookcase with a red Resinfex lining. It is important to remember that Apelli & Varesio, the manufacturer of this furniture, only used materials of the highest quality and therefore had to produce it in-house, which involved extremely costly procedures and at times methods of domestic fabrication. The necessary heat to bend the pre-cut wood was transferred using sponges soaked in boiling water and a fat iron. The cut wood was then inserted into the mould designed for the particular component. More specifically, the production of the present lot required the use of two moulds/stamps, one for the lower frame and one for the support of the seat back, the manufacture of which also required great workforce and a long time.

The chairs here examined are a perfect testimony to Mollino’s modus operandi which can be defined as pure engineering: they in fact present a structure which, visible in all its parts, offers a very effective aesthetic expression. Designed to use the minimum quantity of material and only where strictly necessary, the chairs were reinforced with brass fixtures, used to keep its bent wood parts in tension and at distance from one another and which act as the chair’s bone structure, emphasising its physical and artistic tension. The chair is imagined in its space; you can move around it, as you do with sculptures, appreciating every detail. Mollino re-elaborated the human body structure and reinterpreted it with fervour as a chair. He wrote: “Whilst inventing, I was thinking of every dimension and effect in relation to those of man”. The elegance of the object was achieved by opting for a small seat back, suspended in between its lateral supports, and by breaking down the heaviness of the seat with a gentle, curved line.

Fulvio Ferrari
March 2017
Artist Biography
Carlo Mollino
Italian • 1905 - 1973
Carlo Mollino made sexy furniture. His style may have grown out of the whiplash curves of Art Nouveau, but the sinuous lines of his furniture were more humanoid than vegetal, evoking arched backs and other body parts. Mollino was also an avid aviator, skier and racecar driver — he designed his own car for Le Mans. His love of speed and danger comes across in his designs, which MoMA curator Paola Antonelli has described as having "frisson."

Mollino had no interest in industrial design and the attendant constraints of material costs and packaging. His independent wealth allowed him to pick and choose projects, resulting in an oeuvre of unique, often site-specific works that were mostly executed by the Turin joinery firm Apelli & Varesio. Apart from a coffee table that he designed in 1950 for the American company Singer & Sons, his furniture never went into production. Notwithstanding the support of Gio Ponti, Mollino's design contemporaries largely dismissed him as an eccentric outsider. However, the combination of scarcity (Mollino only made several hundred works in his lifetime), exquisite craftsmanship and idiosyncratic "frisson" has rightly placed Carlo Mollino in the highest tier of twentieth-century design collecting.
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205

Carlo Mollino

Pair of chairs, designed for the conference room, Lattes Publishing House, Turin

1951
Ash plywood, Resinflex, tubular steel, brass.
Each: 97.5 x 38 x 56.5 cm (38 3/8 x 14 7/8 x 22 1/4 in.)
Produced by Apelli & Varesio, Italy. From the production of 12.

Estimate
£160,000 - 220,000

Sold for £239,000

Contact Specialist
Madalena Horta e Costa
Head of Sale
+44 20 7318 4019

Modern Masters

London Auction 26 April 2017

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202
Gio Ponti
'Distex' armchair, model no. 807, and rare footstool
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
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203
Carlo Scarpa
Rare eight-armed chandelier, model no. 5334 A8
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000
Sold for £56,250
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204
Fulvio Bianconi
Rare vase, model no. 4426
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ♠
Sold for £25,000
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205
Carlo Mollino
Pair of chairs, designed for the conference room, Lattes Publishing House, Turin
Estimate £160,000 - 220,000
Sold for £239,000
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206
This lot is no longer available.
207
Jean Royère
Important 'Trèfle' sideboard
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000
Sold for £149,000
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208
Kaare Klint
Three-seater box-shaped sofa, model no. 4118
Estimate £35,000 - 50,000
Sold for £43,750
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209
Jørgen Berg
Rare cabinet-on-stand, model no. 24190
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000
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210
Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann
Rare and important ceiling light, model no. 3543NR
Estimate £120,000 - 150,000
Sold for £137,000
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211
Jean-Michel Frank
'Colonne' table lamp
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
Sold for £43,750
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212
Salvador Dalí for Jean-Michel Frank
'Dalí' floor lamp
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000
Sold for £143,000
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213
Alberto Giacometti
‘Tête de femme’ table lamp
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 Ω
Sold for £437,000
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214
Paul Rodocanachi for Jean-Michel Frank
Set of four dining chairs
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000
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215
Alberto Giacometti
Unique and large conic chandelier with four small cones, from the Tériade apartment, Paris
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,500,000 Ω
Sold for £2,045,000
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216
Josef Hoffmann
Tea service, model no. S se 8, comprising model nos. S 5369 - S se 8-1, S 5370 - S se 8-2, S 5371 - S se 8-3, S 5372 - S se 8-4, S 5373 - S se 8-5
Estimate £40,000 - 50,000
Sold for £90,000
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217
Young Sook Park
'Moon Jar', no. 16
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
Sold for £137,000
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218
Armand-Albert Rateau
Unique and important dining table and set of ten chairs from the hôtel particulier Thalheimer, Paris
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000
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219
Ron Arad
'Little Heavy' chair
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000
Sold for £31,250
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220
Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret
Unique bookcase, designed for Henri Ingber
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000
Sold for £215,000
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221
Joris Laarman
Important 'Bridge' table
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 Ω
Sold for £341,000
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222
Jean Prouvé
Rare chair, model no. 4
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000
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223
Jean Prouvé
'Flavigny' double bed, from the Air France Unité d’Habitation, Brazzaville
Estimate £38,000 - 42,000
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224
Jean Prouvé
Important 'Cité' armchair, from Jean Prouvé's private collection
Estimate £180,000 - 280,000
Sold for £317,000
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225
Jean Prouvé
'6 x 9' demountable house, together with 'Pyrobal' fireplace
Estimate £700,000 - 900,000
Sold for £665,000
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226
Jean Prouvé
Rare 'Visiteur' armchair, type FV. 12
Estimate £70,000 - 100,000
Sold for £203,000
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227
Gio Ponti
Unique executive desk, designed for the Dulciora offices, Milan
Estimate £35,000 - 45,000
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228
Gio Ponti
Unique swivel armchair, from the Dulciora offices, Milan
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000
Sold for £12,500
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229
Gio Ponti
Unique folding table, designed for the Dulciora offices, Milan
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
Sold for £65,000
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230
Gio Ponti
Unique set of three chairs, designed for the Dulciora offices, Milan
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000
Sold for £31,250
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231
Gio Ponti
Unique 'Parete organizzata', designed for the Dulciora offices, Milan
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000
Sold for £47,500
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232
Gio Ponti
Set of twelve armchairs, from the Dulciora offices, Milan
Estimate £25,000 - 35,000
Sold for £28,750
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233
Gino Sarfatti
Rare large chandelier, model no. 2109/27, executed for a private commission, France
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £106,250
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234
Gio Ponti
Rare coffee table
Estimate £35,000 - 45,000
Sold for £68,750
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235
Jean Royère
Rare illuminated desk
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Sold for £75,000
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236
Giacomo Balla
Unique vanity
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
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237
Studio B.B.P.R.
Unique sofa, designed for the Belsana offices, Milan
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000
Sold for £31,250
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238
Pierre Jeanneret
Set of six 'Showroom' armchairs, model no. PJ-SI-49-A, possibly designed for the Tagore Theater, Chandigarh
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £50,000
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239
Flemming Lassen
'Third' armchair
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000
Sold for £65,000
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240
Marc Newson
Prototype 'Micarta' desk
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000
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Modern Masters

London Auction 26 April 2017

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Provenance

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Carlo Mollino

205

Carlo Mollino

Pair of chairs, designed for the conference room, Lattes Publishing House, Turin

Modern Masters

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