For Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti, the decade following World War II saw the formation of the concepts in furniture and interior planning that would preoccupy him until the end of his career. In 1957, Ponti acquired his apartment in Via Dezza, Milan, his home until his death which was at once a hub for family life and a site for the implementation of his pioneering ideas about flexible, open plan living. The present lot has a direct provenance from Ponti's Via Dezza apartment and, dating to this post-war period of fervent experimentation, reflects, in its design, the inception of the principles that defined Ponti’s later furniture masterpieces.
From the late 1950s, Ponti orientated his domestic projects around the aim of maximising 'visible space' (spazio visibile), space that, in his own words, is usable ''vitally, visually, effectively, with versatility in terms of light, air and variety of purpose'' (Domus, 490). It was this goal that dictated Ponti's near obsession with folding mechanisms in his designed objects of the 1950s, from his 1956 cutlery designs for Lino Sabattini at Christofle, to his single sheet metal animals made with enamel artist Paolo de Poli, and the present extendable table.
Another solution pioneered by Ponti in this period for creating interior space was the introduction of mobility, both technical and in terms of moveability, to furnishings and interior designed elements. The Superleggera chair, an icon of post-war Italian furniture and Ponti's best-known design, was refined to its lightest, 1.7kg point the same year he developed the present dining table, which, with its fine pointed legs and thinness of form, acts as the antithesis of the conventional heavy dining room furniture of the pre-war Italian household. Just as progressive in designing for a modern, post-war Italian society was Ponti's early advocacy of open plan living, achieved through the introduction of moveable concertina wooden walls to allow for a variety of potential spaces. As illustrated in a contemporary photograph of the architect with his clients, Iranian Prime Minister Shafi Namazee and his wife Vida (centre), gathered around the present dining table at Via Dezza, Ponti implemented both features, the concertina wall and folding furniture, in his own apartment already in the late 1950s.
Gio Ponti and the Nemazee family gathered around the present extendable dining table in Ponti's Via Dezza apartment, circa 1960.
Image: © Gio Ponti Archives / archivio storico Gio PontiPonti's ideas about flexible living, developed over two decades and manifested, in an early form, in the present table, would dominate his last major furniture project in the 1970s. This was 'Apta', a furniture series presented by Ponti at the third Eurodomus furniture fair in Milan in 1970 and developed in collaboration with Walter Ponti, a cabinetmaker in San Biagio, Mantua, known for his innovative furniture fabrication techniques. The present table served as a catalyst for the design and production partnership that would flourish between the two when the architect brought the present lot table from Via Dezza to the cabinetmaker as an example of his ideas for folding furniture, and then gifted the piece to the latter.
As seen in the folding table, model no. A90 from the 'Apta' series, also in the present sale (lot 9), the furniture range was not only adjustable, but fully collapsible, representing the culmination of Ponti's ideas about furnishing the modern home. 'Apta' formed part of 'The Adapted House' (La Casa Adatta) at the Eurodomus fair, a housing concept which involved an open plan, moveable walls, and folding furniture: in other words, a mass-produced version of the formula developed by Ponti two decades earlier in the dining room at Via Dezza. The present table, as an inaugural expression of these concepts and as part of Ponti's ongoing design experiments in his own home, stands as a testament to the architect's visionary approach to modern living.Provenance
Gio Ponti, Via Dezza, Milan
Walter Ponti, Mantua, gifted from the above
Thence by descent
Acquired from the above by the present ownerLiterature
Andrea Branzi and Michele De Lucchi, eds., Il Design Italiano Degli Anni '50, Milan, 1985, illustrated p. 149
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.
8
Unique extendable dining table, from Gio Ponti's private residence, Via Dezza, Milan
1957
Elm, elm-veneered wood, brass.
79.6 x 80 x 80 cm (31 3/8 x 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.)
77.3 x 160 x 80 cm (30 3/8 x 62 7/8 x 31 1/2 in.), fully extended
Possibly executed by Giordano Chiesa, Milan, Italy. Together with a certificate of expertise from the Gio Ponti Archives.
Estimate
£12,000 - 18,000 ‡
Sold for £15,240
Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
Design
London Auction 13 November 2024
