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Casa Fornaroli: Close To Ponti’s Heart
By Brian Kish, Curator and Specialist in 20th Century Italian Architecture and Design, Consultant to the Gio Ponti Archives since 2006
Like a tapestry woven over a lifetime mostly on Gio Ponti’s loom, the art and design objects from Antonio Fornaroli’s home shine a multicoloured light on the world of mid-century Milanese interiors. Far reaching interlocked threads lead us, among countless objects from vases to buildings, towards a host of participants in the close-knit Ponti community. We encounter almost everyone: Paolo Buffa, Carlo De Carli, Adriano Spilimbergo, Piero Zuffi, Pietro Chiesa, Paolo De Poli, Fausto Melotti, Lucio Fontana, Max Ingrand, both Carlo and Tobia Scarpa, Fulvio Bianconi, Thomas Stearns, and Tapio Wirkkala, all of whom had project-related associations or even direct connections to Ponti such as Buffa and De Carli who had worked early on in the Ponti studio.
In his own 1954 monograph Espressione di Gio Ponti, the master enthusiastically referred to his collaborator Fornaroli as, ‘my dearest and truest friend’. Their privileged professional relationship and friendship explains why hitherto unknown Ponti designs in this selection from Casa Fornaroli are only now re-emerging, further illuminating what was probably the most active and prolific 20th century architecture practice in Italy.
"If Giordano Chiesa was Ponti's most trusted 'ebanista', then surely Fornaroli was his most trusted engineer"
—Brian KishTheir collaborations, starting in 1933 went on for almost 40 years, producing the firm's most noteworthy buildings. In Milan alone, 23 buildings are attributed to their partnership. The standard bearers were the two Montecatini buildings (1936 and 1951), the Pirelli tower (1956), and the bright green tile clad Montedoria building (1970), illustrating one – the corporate – amongst a plethora of construction typologies that include apartments, churches, a factory, a hospital and a school.
Gio Ponti and Antonio Fornaroli in front of a model for the Pirelli Tower prior to its construction, circa 1953.
© Gio Ponti Archives.A few years into their partnership, Fornaroli began to acquire interior furniture by Ponti. From the late 1930s until the mid-1950s his residence steadily filled up with many significant pieces. It transpires that Fornaroli, the engineer, was drawn to Ponti’s rectilinear designs rather than his angled tapering furniture components. There is much breathing space in their calm structured geometries, a stark contrast to the agitated excursions seen in Casa di Fantasia of 1951. The Fornaroli pieces in this selection exemplify modernist rigour. The set comprises a four-door wardrobe and a wall-mounted chest of drawers. These significant wooden designs are lightened, even sublimated through their crafted, white-painted grissinato surfacing. The wardrobe also stands out for incorporating a series of 12 paintings by Adriano Spilimbergo. It likely is the first recorded work of a Ponti collaboration with Spilimbergo, an artist who ten years later was associated with painted images he made for Osvaldo Borsani. Around that time, both in Domus and Stile, Ponti published glowing reviews on Spilimbergo’s art exhibitions; so it was not by chance that he sought out an experimental collaboration with this artist. It was also the first of a long list of collaborations with Piero Fornasetti, Edina Altara, Piero Zuffi, Paolo De Poli, and others.
Three other furniture designs with integrated art works were distributed throughout Fornaroli’s apartment. A 1951 Piero Zuffi lithographic print was incorporated into a large bookcase that surmounts a bank of concealed cabinetry. Ponti's 1955 bookcase with its multiple array of varying geometries, is offset by Zuffi's animated abstract still life over one flap-door cabinet facing. Earlier in 1948 Ponti himself had created an integrated bar cabinet surmounted by one of his double shrouded female forms, their archaic style in startling contrast to the white painted rationalist cabinetry below. Completing these wanderings into art and design, the largest and most complex part of the collection is a wall that functions as wardrobe system with a concealed central door opening into an adjoining room. The entire facade is a vast mural that replicates the ‘diamond as crystal as architecture’ theme that Ponti had also used in both the Caracas villas, Planchart and Arreaza. Likewise, this entire wall unit is another powerful, clear statement of Ponti’s guiding humanist thesis in compelling diamond imagery.
Casa Fornaroli interior. Most definitely, Fornaroli had a predilection for integrated Pontian cabinetry which was abundantly distributed throughout his flat. The living room incorporated more of Ponti's ‘furnished walls’, an ideal backdrop for a hybrid study/dining table with a gracious slim line crowned by a quasi-hexagonal top recalling the footprint of the Pirelli tower that Fornaroli and Ponti were working on at that time. On a miniature scale, the cabinetry extends to a toy furniture bedroom suite, featuring a wardrobe and a furnished bed all covered in Ponti’s ‘I Fantini’ pattern which he has used for Ginori ceramics in the 30s.
A collection of artworks and objects completes this lightsome environment: ceramics by Picasso, Melotti, and Fontana found company with Ponti designed glassware, silverware and enamelled works. His Morandiane bottle series for Venini was continued by Fulvio Bianconi, and his designs for enamelled copper bowls and vases executed in collaboration with Paolo De Poli eventually became the defining achievement of almost all of De Poli's oeuvre. Also significant among these objects are a pair of 1956 prototype vases for Christofle. These silver-plated and brass-plated bundled clusters of varying size tubes are the forerunners of Ponti's 1960s projects for coloured skyscrapers, and strongly recall the matrix for his 1971 Centre Pompidou project.
[left] Model for Gio Ponti’s unrealised project for Plateau Beaubourg in Paris, 1971.
© Gio Ponti Archives.
[right] Gio Ponti, Two prototype 'Tubi' flower holders.The Casa Fornaroli selection stands as witness to specific currents of European culture indexed to ‘avant garde’ modernism. Ponti had written in Amate l'architettura about the Milanese agility in producing effortless refinements. This constellation of artists, designers, and architects, completes a dense, overflowing tapestry still teeming with life. Its appearance today is an exceptional moment of converging momenta; something we are perhaps less likely to encounter as we turn towards the second quarter of the 21st century.
Provenance
Antonio Fornaroli, Milan
Thence by descentLiterature
Ugo La Pietra, ed., Gio Ponti: L’Arte si innamora dell’Industria, New York, 2009, p. 290-91 for a similar design
Sophie Bouihet-Dumas, Dominique Forest, Salvatore Licitra, eds., Gio Ponti: Archi-designer, Paris, 2018, p. 197 for a similar design
Salvatore Licitra et al., Gio Ponti, Cologne, 2021, pp. 358-60, 364 for a similar designArtist 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.
213
Unique large wardrobe with integrated door
circa 1955
Painted wood, ash, ash-veneered wood, aluminium, mirrored glass, brass.
315.1 x 302.3 x 86.1 cm (124 x 119 x 33 7/8 in.)
Together with a certificate of expertise from the Gio Ponti Archives.
Estimate
£5,000 - 7,000 ‡
Sold for £25,400
Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
Casa Fornaroli
London Auction 27 April 2023
201
Gio Ponti
Scenography sketch
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡♠
Sold for £6,350
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202
Gio Ponti
Unique inset drinks cabinet with integrated 'Le bariste' painting and shelf
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ‡♠
Sold for £22,860
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203
Gio Ponti
Group of nine glasses
Estimate £1,800 - 2,400 ‡
Sold for £6,096
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204
Gio Ponti
Prototype armchair
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡
Sold for £6,350
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205
Pablo Picasso
'Madoura'
Estimate £1,500 - 2,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,159
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206
Thomas Stearns
Vase, model no. 8632, from the 'Cilindri' series
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡
Sold for £16,510
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207
Gio Ponti
'I fantini' toy furniture
Estimate £1,500 - 2,000 ‡
Sold for £1,651
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208
Tapio Wirkkala
Rare bowl, model no. 506.0
Estimate £1,200 - 1,800 ‡
Sold for £1,524
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209
Carlo de Carli
Set of eight dining chairs, model no. 671
Estimate £6,000 - 8,000 ‡
Sold for £10,160
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210
Gio Ponti
Two costume sketches, for the 'Festa Romantica' ballet
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,286
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211
Gio Ponti
'Morandiana' bottle with stopper
Estimate £1,500 - 2,000 ‡
Sold for £1,905
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212
Pablo Picasso
'Visage de face'
Estimate £1,500 - 2,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,159
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213
Gio Ponti
Unique large wardrobe with integrated door
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡
Sold for £25,400
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214
Fausto Melotti
Untitled
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ‡♠
Sold for £40,640
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215
Paolo De Poli
Group of thirteen coasters and two stars
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡
Sold for £10,795
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216
Fausto Melotti
Necklace
Estimate £1,800 - 2,400 ‡♠
Sold for £5,080
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217
Pablo Picasso
'Femme au chapeau fleuri'
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ‡♠
Sold for £21,590
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218
Pablo Picasso
'Vallauris'
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡♠
Sold for £16,510
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219
Pablo Picasso
'Visage aux mains'
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡♠
Sold for £9,525
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220
Fausto Melotti
Important vase
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠
Sold for £15,240
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221
Gio Ponti
Rare extendable dining table
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡
Sold for £35,560
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222
Venini
'Poliedri' ceiling light
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡
Sold for £9,525
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223
Fulvio Bianconi
Two bottles with stoppers, model nos. 4581 and 4582
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡
Sold for £3,556
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224
Gio Ponti
Two custom bookcases with integrated cabinets
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡
Sold for £76,200
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225
Pietro Chiesa
Flower holder, model no. 2069
Estimate £1,200 - 1,800 ‡
Sold for £4,826
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226
Gio Ponti
'Balletto della Scala' jacket
Estimate £600 - 800
Sold for £699
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227
Pablo Picasso
'Joueur de diaule'
Estimate £6,000 - 8,000 ‡♠
Sold for £12,700
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228
Pablo Picasso
'Trois personnages sur tremplin'
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,286
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229
Fausto Melotti
Bowl
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡♠
Sold for £6,350
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230
Fausto Melotti
Necklace
Estimate £1,800 - 2,400 ‡♠
Sold for £4,445
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231
Fausto Melotti
Earrings
Estimate £1,200 - 1,800 ‡♠
Sold for £6,985
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232
Gio Ponti
Writing desk
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡
Sold for £5,715
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233
Max Ingrand
Table lamp, model no. 2206
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000 ‡
Sold for £9,525
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234
Fausto Melotti
'L'abbraccio'
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡♠
Sold for £40,640
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235No Reserve
Fausto Melotti
'Orchestra d'angeli'
Estimate £400 - 600 •‡♠
Sold for £2,794
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236
Carlo Scarpa
Plate
Estimate £800 - 1,200 ‡
Sold for £1,905
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237
Gio Ponti
Custom wall-mounted console
Estimate £7,000 - 9,000 ‡
Sold for £10,795
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238
Gio Ponti
Two prototype 'Tubi' flower holders
Estimate £1,000 - 1,500 ‡
Sold for £3,048
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239
Gio Ponti
Sketch with notes for a 'Venere degli stracci' figure
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,794
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240
Paolo Buffa
Set of four chairs
Estimate £1,500 - 2,500 ‡
Sold for £8,890
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241
Fulvio Bianconi
Carafe and set of twenty-four glasses
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000 ‡
Sold for £8,890
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242
Gio Ponti and Adriano Spilimbergo
Unique illuminated wardrobe with twelve integrated paintings
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ‡
Sold for £63,500
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243
Venini
Pair of 'Poliedri' ceiling lights
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000 ‡
Sold for £13,970
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244
Gio Ponti and Paolo De Poli
Rare vase
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡
Sold for £6,985
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245
Tomaso Buzzi
Bowl, model no. 3617
Estimate £400 - 600 ‡
Sold for £572
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246No Reserve
Fausto Melotti
Untitled
Estimate £1,000 - 1,500 •‡♠
Sold for £191
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247
Gio Ponti
Rare wall-mounted chest of drawers
Estimate £10,000 - 15,000 ‡
Sold for £43,180
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248
Tobia Scarpa
Two bowls
Estimate £1,200 - 1,800 ‡
Sold for £2,794
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249No Reserve
Tobia Scarpa
Large vase, model no. 8507
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000 •‡
Sold for £1,778
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250
Pablo Picasso
'Footballeur'
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ‡♠
Sold for £139,700
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251
Paolo De Poli
Vase and dish
Estimate £800 - 1,200 ‡
Sold for £1,016
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252
Fausto Melotti
Necklace
Estimate £1,800 - 2,400 ‡♠
Sold for £4,826
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253
Gio Ponti and Piero Zuffi
Unique bookcase with cabinets and integrated lithograph
Estimate £8,000 - 12,000 ‡
Sold for £53,340
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254
Paolo De Poli
Large 'Accordi su fondo rosso' dish
Estimate £1,500 - 2,500 ‡
Sold for £5,334
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255
Fulvio Bianconi
Set of twelve glasses
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡
Sold for £7,620
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256
Gio Ponti
Sketch for a fresco on the Scala del Sapere in Palazzo Bo, Padua
Estimate £1,500 - 2,000 ‡♠
Sold for £4,064
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257
Lucio Fontana
'Concetto spaziale'
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡♠
Sold for £53,340
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258
Carlo Scarpa
Two small vessels, model nos. 3552 and 3635
Estimate £300 - 500 ‡
Sold for £1,397
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259
Carlo Scarpa
Frame
Estimate £1,000 - 1,500 ‡
Sold for £2,413
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260
Fausto Melotti
Two bowls
Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 ‡♠
Sold for £6,985
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261
Gio Ponti
Prototype side table
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000 ‡
Sold for £27,940
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