C&B Italia On Sale
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Fabric, Natural Fiber
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Sectional Sofas
Fabric, Foam
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Upholstery
Vintage 1970s Swiss Sectional Sofas
Leather
Vintage 1950s American Sectional Sofas
Fabric, Walnut
Vintage 1970s North American Hollywood Regency Sectional Sofas
Fabric, Foam, Wood
Vintage 1970s German Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Fabric, Upholstery, Plastic, Fiberglass
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Walnut, Faux Leather
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Bouclé, Upholstery, Foam, Wood
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Fiberglass, Leather
Vintage 1970s Sectional Sofas
Wool
Mid-20th Century Italian Living Room Sets
Fabric, Fiberglass
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sofa Tables
Fiberglass
2010s Sectional Sofas
Wool
Vintage 1970s European Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Leather
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Fabric, Wood
Early 2000s German Modern Sectional Sofas
Leather
Recent Sales
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Plastic
Vintage 1970s Sofas
Velvet, Wood
Mid-20th Century European Organic Modern Sofas
Fabric, Foam, Plywood, Cord
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Fiberglass, Fabric
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
Leather, Fiberglass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Living Room Sets
Velvet, Plastic, Fiberglass, Rubber
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Plastic, Fiberglass
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Fiberglass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern End Tables
Plastic, Polyester
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Fiberglass
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
Fiberglass, Fabric
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Posters
Paper
C&B Italia On Sale For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a C&B Italia On Sale?
C&B Italia for sale on 1stDibs
In 1966, Piero Ambrogio Busnelli cofounded C&B Italia, a modern Italian furniture manufacturer, with Cesare Cassina in northern Milan. The Camaleonda sofa — a darling of the design world — is an iconic C&B piece created in 1970 by Milanese architect and designer Mario Bellini, which became a hit after its star turn in the 1972 exhibition “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Soon afterward, however, the company split, with Cassina founding his own eponymous firm and Busnelli taking leadership of what became B&B Italia.
From the outset at C&B, Busnelli and Cassina set about recruiting the most talented modernists in Italy to conceive of creative furnishings manufactured in modern ways. As B&B, for decades, Busnelli cultivated relationships with the world’s best design talent, resulting in furniture pieces that remain legendary today — be they Gaetano Pesce’s outwardly curvaceous Up seating (made for C&B, reintroduced by B&B) or tables from industrial designer Paolo Piva, each more sophisticated than the next in their geometrically complex steel-tube bases. B&B Italia earned four prestigious Compasso d’Oro design awards: in 1979 for Bellini’s Le Bambole, in 1984 for the Sisamo wardrobe system by Studio Kairos, in 1987 for Antonio Citterio’s modular Sity sofa and, in 1989, the first award given to a manufacturing company itself.
Other notable names who designed for B&B Italia over the course of its 54-year history include Patricia Urquiola, Naoto Fukasawa, Zaha Hadid, Ettore Sottsass and Vincent Van Duysen, to name a very few. And while these names bring star power to the B&B brand, in many cases, it was B&B Italia who helped usher in their celebrity, fostering a wave of design talent on the world stage. Now, B&B Italia manages a contract division and outdoor section as well as its residential arm, and it also controls production for Maxalto, a brand spun out with furniture designs by Antonio Citterio.
At 1stDibs, find vintage C&B Italia furniture including sofas, armchairs, tables and more.
A Close Look at Mid-Century Modern Furniture
Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.
ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Emerged during the mid-20th century
- Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture
- A heyday of innovation in postwar America
- Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Europe
CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Simplicity, organic forms, clean lines
- A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors
- Use of natural and man-made materials — alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak; steel, fiberglass and molded plywood
- Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery
- Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors
- Promotion of functionality
MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
- Charles and Ray Eames
- Eero Saarinen
- Milo Baughman
- Florence Knoll
- Harry Bertoia
- Isamu Noguchi
- George Nelson
- Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa
ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS
- Eames lounge chair
- Nelson daybed
- Florence Knoll sofa
- Egg chair
- Womb chair
- Noguchi coffee table
- Barcelona chair
VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.
Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively.
Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer.
Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.
The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.
As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.
Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.
As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.