Gio Ponti and Piero Fornasetti Unique "Madrepore" dining table and set of four armchairs circa 1950 Lithographic transfer-printed wood, painted wood, brass, glass, silk. Table: 30 1/4 in. (76.8 cm) high, 40 in. (101.6 cm) diameter Each chair: 34 1/2 x 22 x 21 1/2 in. (87.6 x 55.9 x 54.6 cm) Table executed by Giordano Chiesa, Milan, Italy, chairs most likely manufactured by Figli di Amedeo Cassina, Meda, Italy. Underside of each chair with pencil inventory markings and incised XX, XXI, XIII, and XVIIII respectively. One chair retains an original paper inventory label. Together with a certificate of authenticity from the Gio Ponti Archives.
Provenance Wright, Chicago, "Modernist 20th Century," May 22, 2005, lot 117 Private collection, Beverly Hills Wright, Chicago, "Design," March 27, 2014, lot 153 Acquired from the above by the present owner Literature Meyric R. Rogers, Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, Rome, 1950, p. 61 for the table "Una sala da pranzo da guardare," Domus, no. 253, December 1950, pp. 28-29 for the table "Casa 'di fantasia,'" Domus, no. 270, May 1952, pp. 29, 35-36, 38 for the armchairs Andrea Branzi and Michele De Lucchi eds., Il Design Italiano Degli Anni ’50, Milan, 1985, p. 110 for the table Patrick Mauriès, Fornasetti Designer of Dreams, London, 1991, p. 265 for the table Piero Fornasetti Barnaba Fornasetti, Mariuccia Casadio, et. al., Fornasetti: The Complete Universe, New York, 2010, pp. 386, 392-93 for the table, pp. 165, 412 for the armchairs Perri Lee Roberts, Modern Living: Gio Ponti and the Twentieth-century Aesthetics of Design, exh. cat., Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, 2017, pp. 89, 91 Catalogue Essay “Passion for Fornasetti” By Perri Lee Roberts The architect Giò Ponti (1891-1979) first became aware of the work of the talented painter and designer Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) at the Fifth Milan Triennial in 1933 and praised it in an article in the design magazine Domus. Besides mutual admiration, Ponti and Fornasetti shared a deep respect for Italy’s visual heritage, a passion for Renaissance and neoclassical motifs and architectural vocabulary, and a refined taste for decorative pattern and bright color. Late in his career, Ponti looked back upon his relationship with Fornasetti: “If it were worthwhile to chronicle my life as an architect a chapter (beginning in 1950) could be: ‘Passion for Fornasetti.’ What does Fornasetti give me? With his prodigious printing process . . . an effect of lightness and evocative magic.” They began working together in 1940 on furniture for the Italian glass company Fontana Arte, but it was in the following decade that their symbiotic relationship truly blossomed. Together they created numerous exuberantly decorated interiors for private homes, offices, shops, and ships of the Italian Finmare cruise line, as well as many individual pieces of furniture, including desks, tables, chairs, bookshelves, and headboards. Designed by Ponti, made by the master cabinetmaker, Giordano Chiesa, and decorated by Fornasetti, the rare “Madrepore” dining table and four armchairs are an outstanding example of their highly successful collaboration. The elegant proportions of the wood table, its slender, elongated legs, and brass sabots are characteristic features of Ponti’s furniture designs. Typical of Fornasetti’s decorative approach, he applied lithographic prints to the brightly painted surfaces of the furniture. In this instance, he scattered large black and white images of different varieties of stony coral (madrepore in Italian) over the top, sides, and legs of the table. Silhouetted against the deeply saturated turquoise background, the decoration brings to mind the coral reefs found in the coastal waters of tropical islands. The wonderfully imaginative theme of the ensemble is further enhanced by the fact that the top of the table is concave and covered with glass, thereby creating the illusion of a tidal pool. In the 1950s Ponti and Fornasetti collaborated on a great number of chairs, most of which were made by the family workshop of Figli di Amadeo Cassina in Meda, Italy. The armchairs that accompany the “Madrepore” table feature a slanted backrest intended to increase the sitter’s comfort. Ponti introduced this distinctive design element around 1949 and later incorporated it into the design of his famous “Superleggera” chair. The original upholstery of the armchairs has not survived, but they have been recovered with a modern reproduction of the hand-printed fabric designed by Fornasetti, featuring coral motifs comparable to those decorating the surfaces of the table. Marine themes first ap
Gio Ponti and Piero Fornasetti Unique "Madrepore" dining table and set of four armchairs circa 1950 Lithographic transfer-printed wood, painted wood, brass, glass, silk. Table: 30 1/4 in. (76.8 cm) high, 40 in. (101.6 cm) diameter Each chair: 34 1/2 x 22 x 21 1/2 in. (87.6 x 55.9 x 54.6 cm) Table executed by Giordano Chiesa, Milan, Italy, chairs most likely manufactured by Figli di Amedeo Cassina, Meda, Italy. Underside of each chair with pencil inventory markings and incised XX, XXI, XIII, and XVIIII respectively. One chair retains an original paper inventory label. Together with a certificate of authenticity from the Gio Ponti Archives.
Provenance Wright, Chicago, "Modernist 20th Century," May 22, 2005, lot 117 Private collection, Beverly Hills Wright, Chicago, "Design," March 27, 2014, lot 153 Acquired from the above by the present owner Literature Meyric R. Rogers, Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, Rome, 1950, p. 61 for the table "Una sala da pranzo da guardare," Domus, no. 253, December 1950, pp. 28-29 for the table "Casa 'di fantasia,'" Domus, no. 270, May 1952, pp. 29, 35-36, 38 for the armchairs Andrea Branzi and Michele De Lucchi eds., Il Design Italiano Degli Anni ’50, Milan, 1985, p. 110 for the table Patrick Mauriès, Fornasetti Designer of Dreams, London, 1991, p. 265 for the table Piero Fornasetti Barnaba Fornasetti, Mariuccia Casadio, et. al., Fornasetti: The Complete Universe, New York, 2010, pp. 386, 392-93 for the table, pp. 165, 412 for the armchairs Perri Lee Roberts, Modern Living: Gio Ponti and the Twentieth-century Aesthetics of Design, exh. cat., Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, 2017, pp. 89, 91 Catalogue Essay “Passion for Fornasetti” By Perri Lee Roberts The architect Giò Ponti (1891-1979) first became aware of the work of the talented painter and designer Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) at the Fifth Milan Triennial in 1933 and praised it in an article in the design magazine Domus. Besides mutual admiration, Ponti and Fornasetti shared a deep respect for Italy’s visual heritage, a passion for Renaissance and neoclassical motifs and architectural vocabulary, and a refined taste for decorative pattern and bright color. Late in his career, Ponti looked back upon his relationship with Fornasetti: “If it were worthwhile to chronicle my life as an architect a chapter (beginning in 1950) could be: ‘Passion for Fornasetti.’ What does Fornasetti give me? With his prodigious printing process . . . an effect of lightness and evocative magic.” They began working together in 1940 on furniture for the Italian glass company Fontana Arte, but it was in the following decade that their symbiotic relationship truly blossomed. Together they created numerous exuberantly decorated interiors for private homes, offices, shops, and ships of the Italian Finmare cruise line, as well as many individual pieces of furniture, including desks, tables, chairs, bookshelves, and headboards. Designed by Ponti, made by the master cabinetmaker, Giordano Chiesa, and decorated by Fornasetti, the rare “Madrepore” dining table and four armchairs are an outstanding example of their highly successful collaboration. The elegant proportions of the wood table, its slender, elongated legs, and brass sabots are characteristic features of Ponti’s furniture designs. Typical of Fornasetti’s decorative approach, he applied lithographic prints to the brightly painted surfaces of the furniture. In this instance, he scattered large black and white images of different varieties of stony coral (madrepore in Italian) over the top, sides, and legs of the table. Silhouetted against the deeply saturated turquoise background, the decoration brings to mind the coral reefs found in the coastal waters of tropical islands. The wonderfully imaginative theme of the ensemble is further enhanced by the fact that the top of the table is concave and covered with glass, thereby creating the illusion of a tidal pool. In the 1950s Ponti and Fornasetti collaborated on a great number of chairs, most of which were made by the family workshop of Figli di Amadeo Cassina in Meda, Italy. The armchairs that accompany the “Madrepore” table feature a slanted backrest intended to increase the sitter’s comfort. Ponti introduced this distinctive design element around 1949 and later incorporated it into the design of his famous “Superleggera” chair. The original upholstery of the armchairs has not survived, but they have been recovered with a modern reproduction of the hand-printed fabric designed by Fornasetti, featuring coral motifs comparable to those decorating the surfaces of the table. Marine themes first ap
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