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Cesare Lacca Seating

Italian, b. 1929

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.

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Creator: Cesare Lacca
Pair of velvet Easy Chairs by Cesare Lacca, circa 1950
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Berlin, DE
A pair of very rare easy chairs. Raspberry velvet cover, fringes, in original condition. Front legs are made of brass, back legs are made of walnut wood.
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Brass

Small 1950s Mid-Century Italian Stool in Brown Velvet and Cesare Lacca Design Ma
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Great style and shape for this small stool of great character and shape, created in velvet with buttons.
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Velvet, Mahogany

1950s velvet shell sofa in the style of Gio Ponti
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Torino, IT
The Italian 1950s were iconic and innovative especially in terms of seating, this small sofa is an example of Italian creative genius. Among the great masters who designed these mode...
Category

1950s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Velvet, Giltwood

Cesare Lacca Slipper Chair in Faux fur and Dark Blue Satin, Italy, 1950s
By Cesare Lacca, Casa e Giardino
Located in Milan, IT
Splendid and rare Cesare Lacca slipper chair in Faux fur and dark blue Satin, manufactured by Casa and Giardino, the famed Interiors store owned by Fede Cheti. Italy 1950s Referenc...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Satin, Faux Fur, Wood

Small Sofa Italian Mid-Century Design Green Velvet Cesare Lacca, 1950s
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Palermo, Sicily
A small sofa with a pleasant shape, design and elegance, restored with a good petrol green velvet.
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Velvet, Wood

Mid-Century Modern Large Italian Curved Sofa with Shaped Back by Cesare Lacca
By Cesare Lacca
Located in London, GB
Very large curved sofa with brass legs and shaped back reupholstered in grey linen. The sofa sits on brass legs. This sofa can sit in the m...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Brass

Mid-Century Modern Sofa by Cesare Lacca, Italy, 1950s
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern Sofa by Cesare Lacca, Italy, 1950s
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Fabric

Elegant Modular Curved Sofa Italian Midcentury Green Brass Feet Cesare Lacca
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Elegant modular curved sofa Italian midcentury design Cesare Lacca Design.
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Brass

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Previously Available Items
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Pair Cesare Lacca triangular stools or ottomans
Pair Cesare Lacca triangular stools or ottomans
H 19.69 in W 20.08 in D 17.72 in
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The variety and quality of Cesare Lacca's creations placed him high among the architect-designers leading the Modernist movement in Italy. As this sofa shows, the quality of his work provides all the decorative effectiveness needed without strain or exaggeration. This rare sofa is evidence, that Lacca like most Italian designers, found it challenging to balance modern creativity and classical elegance, but eventually found the recipe for the perfect result. Like their international counterparts, Italian designers prized the marriage of form and function. Lacca took this further by designing an asymmetrical shape that is as playful as it is stylish; it shows Lacca’s skill to fuse sleek design with the trappings of comfort. The heavily curved body can easily embrace four to five people with its enveloping back and seat. It offers something from every single angle thanks to the asymmetry that governs the aesthetic. It is further highlighted by the differently colored upholstery and line tracing that directs the attention to the outline of the sofa. The large body is supported by four sets of solid wood, tapered legs. Curved sofas are in general considered statement pieces, for reasons that this large sofa makes evident: a large, fully upholstered body with pronounced curves, high quality materials and of course, impeccable craftsmanship. Though midcentury Italian designers may not have the name recognition as some of their Scandinavian and American counterparts, they were integral to developing a modern aesthetic in Europe. This is especially true for Cesare Lacca, who created this sofa in the golden days of the midcentury modernist movement. Condition: In vintage condition. The sofa has its original upholstery with visible traces of wear. Each of our items can be re-upholstered by our in-house atelier in a fabric of choice. Please reach out for more information. Dimensions: 108.86 in W x 51.97 in D x 35.83 in H; Seat height 14.96 in; Arm height 25.59 in 276.5 cm W x 132 cm D x 91 cm H; Seat height 38 cm; Arm height 65 cm About the designer: Born in Naples in 1929, Italian architect-designer Cesare Lacca created modernist furniture and metalwork throughout the 1950s. Though details of his personal life and professional training remain lost to history, there are sufficient surviving primary sources that document his many elegant designs. Like many Italian designers in the 20th century, Lacca moved to Milan after World War II to launch his career. Before he was even 21 years old, his work was selected by a group of American curators for inclusion in the landmark exhibition Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today that toured 12 US museums between 1950 and 1953—the first major exhibition of Italian design outside of Italy. The exhibition showcased the best and brightest of Italian designers who had embraced modernist principles and rejuvenated traditional Italian crafts, like Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, and Gio Ponti Lacca designed a great many tea carts and serving trolleys in his career—which make up a large proportion of what is available on the vintage market today—as well as magazine racks and coffee tables. His seating models were regularly featured in Arredoluce advertisements for Angelo Lelli’s lighting...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

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Fabric, Wood

Pair Mid-Century Italian Armchairs Cesare Lacca 1950s Light Blue Velvet
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Pair of armchairs of character and great personality fully reflect the Italian style of the 1950s, we used an excellent Jab velvet of extraordinary quality.
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

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Velvet, Wood

Pair Italian Mid-Century Modular Sofàs Wavy Shape Cesare Lacca Design
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Pair Italian Mid-Century modular sofàs wavy shape Cesare Lacca design. Just restored with a gray velvet fabric with decorations, and well padded, very good result. Square feet in ...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Fabric

Pair of Cesare Lacca Red Velvet Fireplace Upholstered Chairs from the 1950's
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Milan, IT
Pair of 1950's red velvet fire place chairs by Cesare Lacca, part of a living room set composed by a sofa a pair of armchairs armchairs (see pictures)...
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1950s Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

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Brass

Cesare Lacca Red Velvet Sofa from the 1950's
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Milan, IT
1950's red velvet sofa by Cesare Lacca, part of a living room set composed by a pair of armchairs and two tiny fire place armchairs (see pictures), purchased from the previous owner ...
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1950s Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Brass

Cesare Lacca Red Velvet Sofa from the 1950's
Cesare Lacca Red Velvet Sofa from the 1950's
H 31.5 in W 78.75 in L 31.5 in
Cesare Lacca Small Sofà Mid Century Italian Design Green Velvet
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Cesare Lacca small sofà mid century Italian design green velvet.
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Velvet

Mid-Century Modern Pair of Italian Armchairs by Cesare Lacca
By Cesare Lacca
Located in London, GB
Pair of armchairs with brass legs and shaped back, reupholstered in grey linen.   
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Brass

Cesare Lacca sofa Scalloped Shape, 1950s
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Beautifully sofa in powdery blue velvet (Pierre Frey fabric) from post-war Italian designer Cesare Lacca. Hollywood style for this sofa .The scalloped shape...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Velvet

Cesare Lacca sofa Scalloped Shape, 1950s
Cesare Lacca sofa Scalloped Shape, 1950s
H 31.5 in W 74.41 in D 33.08 in
Curved Sofa by Cesare Lacca, Italy, 1950s
By Cesare Lacca
Located in Rotterdam, NL
Curved sofa by Cesare Lacca, Italy, 1950s. The sofa is reupholstered with a luxurious silk and cotton velvet from the collection of Pierre Frey with an exceptional soft feel. Very el...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Cesare Lacca Seating

Materials

Velvet

Curved Sofa by Cesare Lacca, Italy, 1950s
Curved Sofa by Cesare Lacca, Italy, 1950s
H 33.47 in W 75.99 in D 36.62 in

Cesare Lacca seating for sale on 1stDibs.

Cesare Lacca seating are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of fabric and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Cesare Lacca seating, although red editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original seating by Cesare Lacca were created in the mid-century modern style in italy during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider seating by Giancarlo De Carlo, Gustavo Pulitzer Finali, and Roberto Mango. Prices for Cesare Lacca seating can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $1,663 and can go as high as $13,345, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $4,714.

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