Cesare Lacca Shelves
Architect and designer Cesare Lacca is renowned for the modernist furniture he created during the 1950s. Made with materials like teak, glass and brass, his work continues to command great interest from mid-century modern collectors. His pieces have recently found their way onto some of the 21st century’s most trendy television and movie sets.
Lacca was born in Naples, Italy, in 1929. Like many Italian designers in the 20th century, he moved to Milan after World War II to launch his career. At the age of 20, he was selected by a group of American curators for inclusion in the 1951 landmark exhibition “Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today” at the Art Institute of Chicago. It showcased Italian designers who had embraced modernist principles and rejuvenated traditional Italian crafts, like Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini and Gio Ponti.
Lacca designed a dizzying array of tea carts and serving trolleys across his career, including magazine racks and coffee tables. Lacca’s most well-known piece is a tea cart — most commonly used as a bar cart — that Cassina manufactured. It features beautifully sculpted beech, cedar, teak and walnut with brass details, a glass tabletop and a removable glass tray.
This Lacca cart was featured as Don Draper’s office bar in his Manhattan advertising agency on several episodes of the wildly popular television show Mad Men, reinvigorating the interest of collectors. Several other Lacca pieces have been part of the set decorations in the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the movie Being the Ricardos.
On 1stDibs, find Cesare Lacca tables, racks and stands, seating and more.
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Cesare Lacca Shelves
Steel
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Metal
1950s Finnish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Birch, Oak
1950s Finnish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Birch, Mirror
1950s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Teak
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Brass
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Metal
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Cesare Lacca Shelves
Burl, Walnut
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Metal
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Cesare Lacca Shelves
Wood
1920s Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Hardwood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Cesare Lacca Shelves
Glass
1950s American Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Leather, Oak
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Shelves
Brass
