Gio Ponti - Design New York Tuesday, December 12, 2017 | Phillips
  • Literature

    Ugo La Pietra, ed., Gio Ponti, New York, 2009, p. 238 for a similar example exhibited at the 1957 Milan Triennale

  • Catalogue Essay

    The lines and proportion of the present pair of armchairs, which were commissioned for an apartment in the 1940s, anticipate the larger production furniture that Ponti would go on to design for Cassina, in particular the model no. 803 armchair designed in 1953. An armchair that Ponti exhibited at the 1957 Milan Triennale also bears a close resemblance to the present example.

  • Artist Biography

    Gio Ponti

    Italian • 1891 - 1979

    Among the most prolific talents to grace twentieth-century design, Gio Ponti defied categorization. Though trained as an architect, he made major contributions to the decorative arts, designing in such disparate materials as ceramics, glass, wood and metal. A gale force of interdisciplinary creativity, Ponti embraced new materials like plastic and aluminum but employed traditional materials such as marble and wood in original, unconventional ways.

    In the industrial realm, he designed buildings, cars, machinery and appliances — notably, the La Cornuta espresso machine for La Pavoni — and founded the ADI (Industrial Designer Association). Among the most special works by Gio Ponti are those that he made in collaboration with master craftsmen such as the cabinetmaker Giordano Chiesa, the illustrator Piero Fornasetti and the enamellist Paolo de Poli.

    View More Works

10

Pair of armchairs

1940s
Fabric, stained ash.
Each: 32 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 33 in. (82.6 x 74.9 x 83.8 cm)
Together with a certificate of authenticity from the Gio Ponti Archives.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $25,000

Contact Specialist
Cordelia Lembo
Specialist, Head of Sale
+1 212 940 1265

Design

New York Auction 12 December 2017