PrimoPiano Modern

Hans-Agne Jakobsson designed this chandelier with ten cylindrical brass-plated light points. The brass reflects the light vertically while the light itself is emitted horizontally. T...

Mid-century desk with structure in chromed tubular metal, wooden drawers, and ground glass tabletop, designed by Osvaldo Borsani; Italian manufacturer from the 1930s. This desk prese...

This lamp is a work by Jonathan Bocca, a young designer from Lucca. He graduated from the IED in Florence, and he attended the University of the Arts London (UAL). He also gained exp...

This work is titled Reverse of the Sky (2002) by the artist Andrea Santarlasci. It consists of two photographs, identical images of a tree branch, presented in two different sizes. T...

Kono coffee table designed by Massimo Vignelli and manufactured by Casigliani in 1970s. Low table with supports in oxidized copper and white Carrara marble and ground glass on top. ...

A fireside chair with a structure in black lacquered beech wood and a seat in hand-woven rush. This iconic fireside chair was designed by Gio Ponti in 1939 and produced by Casa & Giardino during the 1950s. The peculiar look of this chair is due especially to the high sculptural back, which presents beautifully carved details and a rustic seat in a natural hand-woven rush. Literature: Domus n. 143, November 1939, pag. 60. Gio Ponti was an icon of the modernist movement: the Italian designer, architect, artist and publisher contributed significantly to the worlds of architecture and design with his extensive work in fine furniture and ceramics, education, office and residential buildings, and everything in between. Giovanni, known as Gio Ponti was born in 1891 in Milan. It was there that he spent his childhood, and in 1921 he began to study architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. From 1923 to 1930 he served as the artistic director of the Richard-Ginori porcelain factory. In 1927, Ponti started his first architectural office, together with Emilio Lancia, and in 1928 he started the magazine Domus, which is still regarded as one of the most influential European magazines for architecture and design. He was also very influential during the period as a curator of the Milan Triennale. After his collaboration with Emilio Lancia had come to an end, upon completion of the Torre Rasini, he began to work as an architect together with the engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini...

Rectangular cart model C7 with a black painted steel rod frame, removable shelves in a light brown steel sheet designed by Osvaldo Borsani for Tecno Varedo, 1960s Literature: P. Bosoni, Osvaldo Borsani. Architect, designer, entrepreneur, Skira, Milan 2018, p. 596 In 1953, he founded the Tecno company, specialized in technology and innovation which was the best way to him to produce his own creations. The D70 sofa bed...

A set composed of two appliques and one wall lamp in metal and colored glass, Italian Manufacture, 1960s. Measurements: 18 x 90 cm (chandelier) 12 x 52 c...

This ceramic piece is part of the Yantra series by Ettore Sottsass, a collection of thirty-nine forms including containers, ashtrays, vases and bowls, created between 1969 and 1973 a...

This ceramic piece is part of the Yantra series by Ettore Sottsass, a collection of thirty-nine forms including containers, ashtrays, vases and bowls, created between 1969 and 1973 a...

Nictea pendant lamp in nickel-plated brass, and glass was designed by Tobia Scarpa in 1961 and produced by Flos. The Nictea lamp gives filtered and concentrated light thanks to the ...

Set of two Fratina chairs in pine wood designed by Mario Ceroli in 1972 and produced by Poltronova. Mario Ceroli showed this chair for the first time during the Shakespearean piece...

Traccia side table with structure in polished cast bronze, elliptical top in plywood finished with fine yellow gold leaf. Traccia table was originally designed by Meret Oppenheim i...

Office desk with two frontal drawers with structure in wood, top in colored glass and brass details (keyholes, keys and feet), originally designed by Gio Ponti for the offices of the...

Bocca or Marilyn sofa with structure in expanded polyurethane foam covered with red fabric, the cover is completely removable. This sofa was designed by Studio 65 and produced by Guf...

Set of eight hexagonal coffee tables with legs in painted metal and wooden/laminate top, designed by Gio Ponti and produced by ISA, 1950s, Italy, Literature: Fabio Fioroni, Alessandr...

Set of two hexagonal coffee tables with legs in painted metal and wooden/laminate top, designed by Gio Ponti and produced by ISA, 1950s, Italy, Literature: Fabio Fioroni, Alessandra ...

Set of six hexagonal coffee tables with legs in painted metal and wooden/laminate top, designed by Gio Ponti and produced by ISA, 1950s, Italy, Literature: Fabio Fioroni, Alessandra ...

Set of three hexagonal coffee tables with legs in painted metal and wooden/laminate top, designed by Gio Ponti and produced by ISA, 1950s, Italy, Literature: Fabio Fioroni, Alessandr...

The Annabella chest of drawers, with four drawers, is entirely made of pine wood. It was designed by the Italian artist Mario Ceroli as part of the Mobili nella Valle series and prod...

Round table model La Rosa dei Venti, part of the Mobili nella Valle series, it's entirely realized in pinewood, with inlays on table-top, it was designed by Mario Ceroli and produced...

Mirror frame from the 'Mobili nella Valle' series, with a frame made of Siberian larch wood. Original stamp. Produced by Poltronova, Italy, 1966. Attribution mark on the side. Mario...

The Camaleonda sofa is one of the most iconic creations by Mario Bellini, designed in 1970 for the company B&B Italia. This sofa exemplifies how design can be functional, modular, an...

Eight-light chandelier made by Venini, the historic Murano glass company, in collaboration with Gio Ponti. The glass is hand-blown and handcrafted, using typical Venetian color techn...

An elegant wall-mounted cabinet in veneered walnut with a white lacquered front and an inset round mirror. Above the mirror there is a barometer, while below it there is a drawer wit...

Rocchettone side table realized in lacquered walnut wood with bright orange decorations (under the table top and on the base), it was designed by Ettore Sottsass and manufactured by ...

Gio Ponti large sideboard in wood with two sliding doors in glass, Italian manufacture from the 1950s. The sideboard comes with the Gio Ponti archives certificate. Gio Ponti (Milan...

Rocchettone side table realized in lacquered walnut wood with bright orange decorations (under the table top and on the base), it was designed by Ettore Sottsass and manufactured by ...

Rocchettone side table realized in lacquered walnut wood with bright orange decorations (under the table top and on the base), it was designed by Ettore Sottsass and manufactured by ...

Table lamp with structure and lampshade entirely realized in chromed steel, from the AM/AS series designed by the iconic duo Franco Albini and Franca Helg and manufactured by Sirrah ...

A rectangular low coffee table entirely made in wood, designed by Ettore Sottsass for Poltronova, Agliana 1960s. The son of an architect, Ettore Sottsass Jr. (1917-2007) was born i...

This ceramic piece is part of the Yantra series by Ettore Sottsass, a collection of thirty-nine forms including containers, ashtrays, vases and bowls, created between 1969 and 1973 a...

A vase from the stepped series in hand-turned in white clay enameled with two-tone matt gray and light green glaze, manufactured in the 1990s by Bitossi and designed by Ettore Sottsa...

Tripolina folding chair presents a wooden frame with metal fixing and a beautiful removable seat realized in high-quality leather. This iconic ...

Large table or desk with structure in oak wood, tabletop in red laminate and brass details. Designe by Gio Ponti for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Italian manufacture from the 1950s. ...

Set of two dining chairs model Ariston with structure in curved plywood and black lacquered metal legs. The Ariston chair was designed by Augusto Bozzi and manufactured by Saporiti ...

Sofa model Shark with a structure in chromed metal, wood, chromed backrest, and ground support, padding in polyurethane foam covered with dark brown fabric. Designed by Francesco Bi...

Set of six 4875 chairs (also known as Bartoli) designed by Carlo Bartoli in 1974 and produced by Kartell. The chairs are made of polypropylene, a very resistant and lightweight plas...

A set of two Montecarlo (T12) side tables with a simple and elegant brass structure and tabletops in crystal, they are the perfect companion for any seats, beds, or desks. The brass...

Locus Solus set is composed of four chairs with a structure in tubular steel a seat in padded leather and a table with a frame in tubular steel and a glass table top. The Locus Sol...

Set of two stools in bamboo and rattan, attributed to Franco Albini and produced in Italy in the 1960s. He was a major figure in the Rationalist Movement, excelling in architectural...

Mid-century modern Mitzi armchair with a black ebonized wooden structure, seat, and, back upholstered with a bright red velvet. Designed by the Italian designer Ezio Longhi for E...

Beautiful decorative dish in polychrome ceramic, with an irregular shape.   

TL30 table with a round top in wood and a base in black lacquered metal, designed by Franco Albini and produced by Poggi in the 1950s. After spending his childhood and part of his youth in Robbiate in Brianza, where he was born in 1905, Franco Albini moved with his family to Milan. Here he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic and graduated in 1929. He starts his professional activity in the studio of Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia, with whom he collaborates for three years. He probably had his first international contacts here In those three years, the works carried out are admittedly of a twentieth-century imprint. It was the meeting with Edoardo Persico that marked a clear turning point towards rationalism and the rapprochement with the group of editors of “Casabella”. The new phase that that meeting provoked starts with the opening of the first professional studio in via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of architects began to deal with public housing by participating in the competition for the Baracca neighborhood in San Siro in 1932 and then creating the Ifacp neighborhoods: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D’Annunzio and Ettore Ponti (1939). Also in those years Albini worked on his first villa Pestarini. But it is above all in the context of the exhibitions that the Milanese master experiments his compromise between that “rigor and poetic fantasy” coining the elements that will be a recurring theme in all the declinations of his work – architecture, interiors, design pieces . The opening in 1933 of the new headquarters of the Triennale in Milan, in the Palazzo dell’Arte, becomes an important opportunity to express the strong innovative character of rationalist thought, a gym in which to freely experiment with new materials and new solutions, but above all a “method”. Together with Giancarlo Palanti, Albini on the occasion of the V Triennale di Milano sets up the steel structure house, for which he also designs the ‘furniture. At the subsequent Triennale of 1936, marked by the untimely death of Persico, together with a group of young designers gathered by Pagano in the previous edition of 1933, Franco Albini takes care of the preparation of the exhibition of the house, in which the furniture of three types of accommodation. The staging of Stanza per un uomo, at that same Triennale, allows us to understand the acute and ironic approach that is part of Albini, as a man and as a designer: the theme addressed is that of the existenzminimum and the reference of the project is to the fascist myth of the athletic and sporty man, but it is also a way to reflect on low-cost housing, the reduction of surfaces to a minimum and respect for the way of living. In that same year Albini and Romano designed the Ancient Italian Goldsmith’s Exhibition: vertical uprights, simple linear rods, design the space. A theme, that of the “flagpole”, which seems to be the center of the evolution of his production and creative process. The concept is reworked over time, with the technique of decomposition and recomposition typical of Albinian planning: in the setting up of the Scipio Exhibition and of contemporary drawings (1941) the tapered flagpoles, on which the paintings and display cases are hung, are supported by a grid of steel cables; in the Vanzetti stand (1942) they take on the V shape; in the Olivetti store in Paris (1956) the uprights in polished mahogany support the shelves for displaying typewriters and calculators. The reflection on this theme arises from the desire to interpret the architectural space, to read it through the use of a grid, to introduce the third dimension, the vertical one, while maintaining a sense of lightness and transparency. The flagpole is found, however, also in areas other than the exhibition ones. In the apartments he designed, it is used as a pivot on which the paintings can be suspended and rotated to allow different points of view, but at the same time as an element capable of dividing spaces. The Veliero bookcase...

Il Sole enameled copper original idea by Gio Ponti produced in 1956 by Paolo de Poli, Padova. With signature, date, and original label on the back. Lictera...

Decorative dish in polychromed ceramic.

A beautiful flap sofa designed by Francesco Binfaré for Edra upholstered in white leather with nine reclinable parts. The sofa presents a steel structure an...

Set of four dining chairs with a frame in black lacquered metal and seat in curved plywood, attributed to Carlo Ratti and produced by Società Compensati Curvati in the 1950s. In Italy, at the beginning of the XX century, industries of curved solid wood arose under license of Michael Thonet, and through the International Exhibitions the processing of curved wood became more and more widespread. The Expo of the first decade was also attended by the wood manufacturers of Monza, while in 1905 Otto Helzer, in Switzerland, patented wooden structures in curved laminated, whose strength was equivalent to those in steel. The Ratti brothers of Monza took their cue from the solid wood laminate to create furniture that, instead of wooden elements, used sheets of wood. The brothers Ratti, Carlo and Mario, also began to follow the young artistic avant-gardes (cubism, futurism and abstractionism). The mastery of wooden sculpture influenced Carlo in the design and realization of furniture of fine neo-plastic artistic workmanship and decò, receiving honors from the Prince of Piedmont Umberto di Savoia. In 1919, in Milan, the first Lombard Exhibition of Decorative Arts was set up (later to become the Triennale) and the Ratti brothers exhibited their furniture in solid wood but also in curved panel with a new system of curvature, the one in Telo. The canvas system was developed by the Ratti brothers with the help of a friend, Cesare Cantù. They developed an elastomer bag in which the mould was inserted with the panel to be bent and, closing it with clamps, the air inside was removed, thus making the panel adhere to the mould. Carlo and Mario found in the Telo system a means by which they could make objects and furniture in the three spatial directions with large surface curvatures, without limits of thickness and minimum radii of curvature. In 1921 in Stuttgart the first Salone del Mobile was inaugurated and the Fratelli Ratti of Monza made itself known internationally by presenting solid wood furniture and also furniture in load-bearing plywood, flanked by furniture with framed and interchangeable covers. The Expo became meeting places to verify and present the novelties in the furniture and industrialization sector and, with the development of Industrial Design, the first architects joined in the design of the furniture industries. The Ratti Brothers, in the various international and national exhibitions, also presented incredible objects in their realization with the system in Telo. After 1930 Carlo and Mario produced many containers for radio and folding chairs for cinema but in 1939 they divided and in Monza Mario remained who, with his sons Antonio and Angela, formed the Società Compensati Curvi...

A golden porcelain bottle with the application of hand-modeled white flowers in relief this beautiful piece was designed by the Italian master Gio Ponti and manufactured by Richard Ginori Pittoria di Doccia between 1923 and 1938. This porcelain bottle was originally presented at the 1935 Paris exhibition L'art italien des XIX et XX siècles. The manufacturer brand 'Richard Ginori Pittoria di Doccia' is visible under the base. The design of this piece was documented in the Gio Ponti catalog shaped in close collaboration with the Gio Ponti Archives and its founder Salvatore Licitra, edited by Taschen. The history of the Ginori Manufactory began in Doccia, just a stone's throw away from Florence, when in 1735 Marquis Carlo Andrea Ginori started a porcelain factory which was destined to become a worldwide icon of style. The eighteenth-century is a key century for the development of porcelain in Europe, in this period the first manufactures are born, fed by new styles and international trends. In stately homes, palaces and courtyards, the precious porcelain of the Doccia Manufactory is synonymous with elegance and refinement. The passage from the nineteenth, the century of reason to that of feeling marks a new chapter in the development of artistic taste and the manufacture of porcelain. Florence becomes the scene of a controversy between the academic supporters of the Beautiful ideal and the naturalists promulgators of the beautiful natural Since 1806 the direction of the Manifattura passed to Leopoldo Carlo Ginori Lisci who initiates a process of profound renewal. In 1986 The Manifattura expanded and the Richard Ginori Ceramic Company is born. The tradition of master craftsmen meets new technologies and the creations are perfected thanks to the use of new patents From 1923 to 1933 the artistic direction of the Manifattura was entrusted to Gio Ponti. The master is responsible for introducing highly innovative elements with sensitivity and respect for the taste for the ancient, and for the oriental culture. In 1925 at the Universal Exposition in Paris, the Manifattura and its artistic director were awarded the assignment to both of a Grand Prix. The Manufactory was renewed by relying on the experience of the greatest Italian designers of the time: Franco Albini, Franca Helg, Antonio Piva, Sergio Asti, Achille Castiglioni, Gabriele Devecchi, Candido Fior...

Set of two cabinets with suede clad panels, each panel is surrounded by a chromed steel frame and presents metal ring shape handles on the frontal ...

Toga chair was realized in hot-press moulded black fibreglass designed by Sergio Mazza in 1968 and manufactured by Artemide, Italy. The Toga chair is pa...

Set of two coffee tables with a black pedestal base in painted die-cast aluminum and an oval-shaped top in white lacquered wood. These two tables were manufactured in the 1990s in the style of the designer Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-born-American architect born on August 20, 1910. Son of an architect and sculptor, Eero went to public schools in Michigan and in 1929 joined Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris to study studied sculpturing. Later he studied architecture at Yale University from 1931 to 1934 and won a chance to travel around Europe and North Africa from 1934 to 1935. Eero started off his professional life from the United States by doing research about housing and city planning with the Flint Institute of Research and Planning in Michigan, in 1936. After working here for two years he joined his father’s firm in 1938. The first international recognition for Eero came during his collaboration with his father. It started off with a chair design and later in time, this duo of father and son managed to win many other competitions for their innovative designs and projects. Furthermore, he went on with furniture design for quite a long period of time. After the death of his father in 1950, Saarinen founded his own firm ‘Eero Saarinen & Associates’ in Birmingham, worked there until the time of his death in 1961. During this time he dedicated a huge chunk of his time for furniture design and other home furnishing design ideas. Some of his major architectural structures and contributions to the field of design are: the Bell Labs...

Round pedestal dining table model UFO with a base in brushed steel and tabletop in thick glass with a black enamel decorative circle. Designed by Luigi Saccardo and manufactured by Maison Jansen in the 1970s. Maison Jansen was a Paris-based interior decoration office founded in 1880 by Dutch-born Jean-Henri Jansen. From its beginnings, Maison Jansen combined traditional furnishings with influences of new trends including Anglo-Japanese style, the Arts and Crafts movement, and Turkish style. The firm paid great attention to historical research with which it attempted to balance clients' desires for livable, usable, and often dramatic space. Within ten years the firm had become a major purchaser of European antiques, and by 1890 had established an antique gallery as a separate firm that acquired and sold antiques to Jansen's clients and its competitors as well. In the early 1920s Jean-Henri Jansen approached Stéphane Boudin, who was then working in the textile trimming business owned by his father and brought him on board. Accounts of the arrangement vary. Speculation existed that Boudin was able to provide financial solvency to the prominent but capital-poor atelier. Boudin's attention to detail, concern for historical accuracy, and ability to create dramatic and memorable spaces brought increasing new work to the firm. Boudin was made director and presided over an expansion of the firm's offices and income. Not originally equipped with its own workrooms for producing furniture the firm began by relying upon antiques and the furniture contracted to outside cabinetmakers. By the early 1890s Maison Jansen had established its own manufacturing capacity producing furniture of contemporary design, as well as reproductions, primarily in the Louis XIV, Louis XVI, Directoire, and Empire styles. Throughout the firm's history, it employed a traditional style drawing upon European design, but influence of contemporary trends including the Vienna Secession, Modernism, and Art Deco has also appeared in Jansen interiors and in much of the custom furniture the firm produced between 1920 and 1950. Under Boudin's leadership, Maison Jansen provided services to the royal families of Belgium, Iran, and Serbia; Elsie de Wolfe, and Lady Olive Baillie's Leeds Castle...

Living room set composed of two armchairs and a footrest with a structure in metal and padded fabric, designed by Anna and Carlo Bartoli and produced by Rossi di Albizzate, in the 19...

A rare Mid-Century Modern table or desk lamp with a stem in metal, a base, and a lampshade in red lacquered metal. Manufactured in Italy during the 1950s. .

Large format softcover in brown paper printed dustwrapper. Facendo mobili con Archizoom, Asti, Aulenti, Ceroli, De Pas d'Urbino Lomazzi, Ernst, Fini, Mangiarotti, Marotta, Mendini, Michelucci, Nespolo, Portoghesi, Ruffi, Sottsass, Superstudio, Vignelli. Profusely illustrated with more than 500 images (photographs and drawings). Text in Italian. Poltronova, printed by Artigraf - Firenze in 1996 (texts by Pier Carlo Santini) Profusely illustrated with more than 500 images (photographs and drawings). Text in Italian, 21 x 30 cm, 180 pages. Santini was born in Lucca on 20 April 1924. After the interval of the war, he attended the Faculty of Letters of the University of Pisa graduating in 1951 under the guidance of Carlo Ludovico Raggianti, with a thesis on Giambologna, worthy of praise and the dignity of publication. From 1952 to 1957 he was editor of "SeleArte", a bimonthly training and information of the artistic disciplines, commissioned by Ragghianti and published by Adriano Olivetti. In 1957 he moved to Milan, to the editorial office of "Comunità" to assume the responsibility of the architecture section. In this period he conceived and produced the first monographs of living architects: Moretti, Figini...

Desk lamp model 665 or Zeta in white lacquered and chromed metal. It presents a double arm formed by two metal rods anchored to the rectangular base, and an adjustable diffuser in white lacquered aluminium that it's rotatable at 360° The lamp was produced by the Italian company Martinelli...

Set of six dining chairs with backs and seats realized in curved veneered plywood and legs in black lacquered metal, designed by Carlo Ratti and manufactured by Industria Legni Curva...

Coupè floor lamp with a structure in white lacquered metal, designed by Joe Colombo and manufactured by Oluce in 1967, circa Italy. Measures: Height: 175 cm Width: 140 cm Lampshade diameter 40 cm Lamp base 30 x 32 cm Joe Colombo born Cesare Colombo, was an important Italian designer, architect and artist. Renowned for his embrace of modern technologies and for the potential he saw in modular furniture and designs, Colombo created a body of furnishings that spoke to the energy and excitement over the potential of the Space Age. Colombo was born and raised in Milan. Joe first in a first time decided to pursue an artistic career by enrolling in Milan’s Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. But after a couple of years at the Accademia, he transferred to Politecnico di Milano, where he studied architecture and graduated in 1954. During his studies at the Accademia, he befriended artists Sergio Dangelo and Enrico Baj, who had been influential in the creation of the avant-garde Movimento Nucleare, a group whose aim was to transform the art of painting in response to the tensions of the modern nuclear age. Until 1958, Colombo worked mainly as an Abstract Expressionist painter and sculptor and thrived on the Movimiento Nucleare group’s energy and intensity, which fueled in his work a fascination with an almost futurist aesthetic. In 1959, Joe Colombo’s father died, and he decided to run the family electrical appliance business while experimenting with new manufacturing methods and materials. This new and unexpected experience influenced him to switch from painting to architecture and design, where his fascination with futuristic themes not only remained intact but found a new invigorating venue. In fact, one of his first design projects was a series of installation works made from television sets that were assembled in the form of shrines; the work was exhibited at the 1954 Triennale di Milano. Colombo decided to open his own design studio in Milan in 1962, entering the busiest phase of his career as he designed furniture, lighting, interiors, and glassware. Also in 1962, Joe and his brother Gianni designed for Oluce the Acrilica lamp...

Cutlery silver set for twelve in nickel silver or German silver, this set includes a total of 36 pieces; 12 spoons, 12 forks, and 12 knives with a steel blade. Set designed by Gio ...