Gio Ponti, pair Walnut Headboards with fitted bedside tables, Hotel Royal, 1955
About the Item
- Creator:Giordano Chiesa (Cabinetmaker),Gio Ponti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 31.5 in (80 cm)Width: 15.75 in (40 cm)Depth: 127.17 in (323 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1955
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Rome, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU950036174992
Gio Ponti
An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.
Ponti designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, mirrors and chairs to ceramics and coffeemakers — and his buildings, including the brawny Pirelli Tower (1956) in his native Milan, and the castle-like Denver Art Museum (1971), were erected in 14 countries. Through Domus, the magazine he founded in 1928, Ponti brought attention to virtually every significant movement and creator in the spheres of modern art and design.
The questing intelligence Ponti brought to Domus is reflected in his work: as protean as he was prolific, Ponti’s style can’t be pegged to a specific genre.
In the 1920s, as artistic director for the Tuscan porcelain maker Richard Ginori, he fused old and new; his ceramic forms were modern, but decorated with motifs from Roman antiquity. In pre-war Italy, modernist design was encouraged, and after the conflict, Ponti — along with designers such as Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso — found a receptive audience for their novel, idiosyncratic work. Ponti’s typical furniture forms from the period, such as the wedge-shaped Distex chair, are simple, gently angular, and colorful; equally elegant and functional. In the 1960s and ’70s, Ponti’s style evolved again as he explored biomorphic shapes, and embraced the expressive, experimental designs of Ettore Sottsass Jr., Joe Colombo and others.
Ponti's signature furniture piece — the one by which he is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Germany’s Vitra Design Museum and elsewhere — is the sleek Superleggera chair, produced by Cassina starting in 1957. (The name translates as “superlightweight” — advertisements featured a model lifting it with one finger.)
Ponti had a playful side, best shown in a collaboration he began in the late 1940s with the graphic artist Piero Fornasetti. Ponti furnishings were decorated with bright finishes and Fornasetti's whimsical lithographic transfer prints of things such as butterflies, birds or flowers; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts possesses a 1950 secretary from their Architetturra series, which feature case pieces covered in images of building interiors and facades. The grandest project Ponti and Fornasetti undertook, however, lies on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean: the interiors of the luxury liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Widely praised retrospectives at the Queens Museum of Art in 2001 and at the Design Museum London in 2002 sparked a renewed interest in Ponti among modern design aficionados. (Marco Romanelli’s monograph, which was written for the London show, offers a fine overview of Ponti’s work.) Today, a wide array of Ponti’s designs are snapped up by savvy collectors who want to give their homes a touch of Italian panache and effortless chic.
Find a range of vintage Gio Ponti desks, dining chairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Giordano Chiesa
As a master cabinetmaker and furniture craftsman, Giordano Chiesa produced beautiful mid-century modern pieces, largely in collaboration with Italian starchitect and designer Gio Ponti.
Although the pair had a long history of collaboration, their work for stylish mid-century Italian hotels stands out. In the mid-1950s, Ponti and Chiesa teamed up with manufacturer Dassi Lissone to create streamlined walnut and brass furniture for the Royal Hotel in Naples, including headboards, side tables and wardrobe doors for each room. A decade later, the duo designed sleek, blue formica-surfaced ashwood writing desks, dressers and headboards, for the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Rome.
Chiesa produced Ponti’s sculptural glass-topped coffee table, which features artistically aligned maple legs and slats to form a sort of grid as its base. Similar to Ponti’s no. 1101 coffee table for Singer and Sons, Chiesa and Ponti’s table rivals the more famous design in its eloquence and craftsmanship.
On 1stDibs, find a collection of Giordano Chiesa tables, storage case pieces and other furniture and collectibles.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Luni (la Spezia) , Italy
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 2 days of delivery.
- Gio Ponti dark wood right Headboard with fitted bedside tables Hotel Royal, 1955By Giordano Chiesa, Gio PontiLocated in Rome, ITa single left headboard by Gio Ponti from the furniture of the Hotel Royal in Naples, 1955. Manufactured by Giordano Chiesa by Dassi. dark honey wood two tiered shelving, magazine rack, space for lighting switch Good condition. Original patina, Sold with a copy of a certificate of Lisa Licitra Ponti and the original invoice of the Hotel Royal. Directly from the original furniture of the Royal Hotel. Measures: H 80 cm 162 x 44cm each piece; radio of the time; hole for the electrical outlet: cm.10 x h 7 cm Similar items of our same collections have been exhibited in London in Modern Design Museum and Triennale in Milan and a similar items of same collector is now in the permanent collection of the TRIENNALE of Milan. See a pair of heaboards of our collection sold in last Italian Design Auction...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsMetal
- Gio Ponti Single Elm Left Headboard with fitted bedside table, Hotel Royal, 1955By Giordano Chiesa, Gio PontiLocated in Rome, ITa single left headboard by Gio Ponti from the furniture of the Hotel Royal in Naples, 1955. Manufactured by Giordano Chiesa by Dassi. olm two tiered shelving, magazine rack, space for lighting switch Good condition. Original patina, Sold with a copy of a certificate of Lisa Licitra Ponti and the original invoice of the Hotel Royal. Directly from the original furniture of the Royal Hotel. Measures: H 80 cm 162 x 44cm each piece; hole for the electrical outlet: cm.10 x h 7 cm Similar items of our same collections have been exhibited in London in Modern Design Museum and Triennale in Milan and a similar items of same collector is now in the permanent collection of the TRIENNALE of Milan. See a pair of heaboards of our collection sold in last Italian Design Auction...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsElm
- pair of GIO PONTI oak hanging nightstand tables, side tables Hotel Royal, 1955By Giordano Chiesa, Gio PontiLocated in Rome, ITpair of hanging oak wood nightstands or bed side tables by Gio Ponti wall mounted two shelves side tables finishing of the owl's beak top part of a pair of original headboards whe...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsOak
- Pair of Large Gio Ponti Cherrywood Boiserie Panels from Hotel Royal, Naples 1955By Giordano Chiesa, Gio PontiLocated in Rome, ITA pair of unique Gio Ponti wood panels from the furniture of the Hotel Royal in Naples, 1955. Manufactured by Giordano Chiesa by Dassi. cherrywood thick edge with owl's beak these pi...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Architectural Elements
MaterialsCherry
- rare Gio Ponti leggera chair, n.646 by Cassina, from Hotel Royal Naples, 1955By Gio PontiLocated in Rome, ITvery rare Gio Ponti iconic chair, n. 646 by Cassina ash and re-upholstery in ivory cotton this model was manufactured by Cassina, Meda as a variation on Ponti's legendary "leggera" c...Category
Vintage 1950s European Modern Chairs
MaterialsVelvet, Ash
- Gio Ponti vanity desk console table with a adjustable Fontana arte mirror, 1950By Giordano Chiesa, Gio PontiLocated in Rome, ITrare Gio Ponti toilette, vanity table dressing table one drawer with an adjustable brass mirror by Fontana Arte produced by Giordano Chiesa for Das...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Gio Ponti Headboard from Hotel Royal, NapoliBy Giordano Chiesa, Gio PontiLocated in Hanover, MAA single wall mounted headboard with floating two-tiered nightstand shelves, designed by Gio Ponti in 1955 for the Hotel Royal in Naples. Pro...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsWalnut
- Gio Ponti Headboard and Bedframe with Attached NightstandsBy Gio Ponti, Giordano ChiesaLocated in Los Angeles, CABed by Gio Ponti, executed by Giordano Chiesa, c.1950s, Italy. This one of a kind piece was commissioned by the Ceccato family, owners of the popular confectionary empire, Dulciora, for their residence in Milan. The bed is comprised of Ferrara root walnut and curly birch...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsWalnut, Birch
- 1940s Mid-Century Nightstand, Bedside Table, Cherrywood Gio Ponti attributableBy Gio PontiLocated in Vigonza, PaduaElegant and particular, of great image bedside table or nightstand in cherrywood, circa 1940, Gio Ponti design attributed In good conditions polished to wax Esposizione Mobili Cantù ...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
MaterialsCherry
- 1940s Cantù Nightstand Table Gio Ponti attributable in Walnut, Maple Crystal TopBy Gio PontiLocated in Vigonza, PaduaFabulous midcentury La Permanente Mobili Cantù Table nightstand, Gio Ponti attributable, in blond walnut, light maple, with ribalta, inlaid with maple. ...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
MaterialsCrystal
- Midcentury Nightstands from Cantù , Gio Ponti Style in Walnut and Veneer WalnutBy Gio PontiLocated in Vigonza, PaduaVery elegant 1950s, Italian nightstands bedside tables Gio Ponti style in walnut and veneer walnut with accessories and decorations in gilded brass. Top in painted crystal Manufactur...Category
Mid-20th Century European Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
MaterialsCrystal
- Gio Ponti Queen Bed - AuthenticatedBy Gio PontiLocated in Hanover, MAGio Ponti bed from 1957 in incredibly figured olive ash burl wood veneer with "organized wall" headboard fitted with floating shelves above single drawer nightstands topped with original reverse silvered Vitreal glass stamped 1957, and pair enameled perforated brass articulating reading lamps...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsBrass
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Barnaba Fornasetti’s Hallucinatory House Has His Father’s Spirit
Behind a nondescript facade in northeastern Milan is the magical residence of Barnaba Fornasetti. It's a shrine to the style developed by his design-legend father, which still defies categorization.
Billy Cotton Layers His Interiors with Lived-In Comfort
The Brooklyn-based designer is adept at styles ranging from austere to over-the-top, espousing an architectural, detail-oriented approach also evident in his line of furniture and lighting.