Skip to main content

Arflex Hug

Arflex Hug Table in Carrara Marble Top with Metal Base by Claesson Koivisto Rune
By Claesson Koivisto Rune, Arflex
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Arflex Hug Table in Carrara Marble Top with Metal Base by Claesson Koivisto Rune. The designers
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Tables

Materials

Carrara Marble

Arflex Hug Armchair High Backrest in Giada Leather by Claesson Koivisto Rune
By Claesson Koivisto Rune, Arflex
Located in Brooklyn, NY
upholstery solutions. In fact, each and every part of the Hug Armchair has been carefully designed to give
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Armchairs

Materials

Leather

Arflex Hug Armchair with Low Backrest in Grey Fabric by Claesson Koivisto Rune
By Claesson Koivisto Rune, Arflex
Located in Brooklyn, NY
upholstery solutions. In fact, each and every part of the Hug Armchair has been carefully designed to give
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Armchairs

Materials

Fabric

Arflex Hug Love Seat Low Backrest & Armrest in Gun Metal Grey by Roberto Menghi
By Roberto Menghi, Arflex
Located in Brooklyn, NY
collection. The armchair HUG is our answer for a new iconic design, made to measure for Arflex”. With these
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Loveseats

Materials

Fabric

Arflex Hug Love Seat high back and armrest in Perla Leather by Roberto Menghi
By Roberto Menghi, Arflex
Located in Brooklyn, NY
collection. The armchair HUG is our answer for a new iconic design, made to measure for Arflex”. With these
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Loveseats

Materials

Leather

People Also Browsed

Soho Curved Cane-Back Chair in White Wood Finish
By Uultis Design
Located in Miami, FL
The Uultis design team has created the Soho curved cane with a cane curved back with a white wood finish for all those people that are looking for an elegant but vintage look in thei...
Category

2010s Brazilian Armchairs

Materials

Lacquer, Fabric, Cane

Arne Norell Ilona Sofa, Sweden, 1970s
By Norell Möbel AB, Arne Norell
Located in London, GB
An original two-seat Arne Norell Ilona sofa in patterned fabric. Made by Norell Mobler in Sweden. In very good vintage condition with minor signs of use and wear relative to age. Uph...
Category

Mid-20th Century Swedish Mid-Century Modern Loveseats

Materials

Brass

Arne Norell Ilona Sofa, Sweden, 1970s
Arne Norell Ilona Sofa, Sweden, 1970s
H 31.5 in W 63 in D 30.71 in
Gigi Radice Mid-Century Modern Italian Velvet Curved Sofa for Minotti, 1950s
By Gigi Radice, Minotti
Located in Puglia, Puglia
Sofa designed by Gigi Radice for Minotti. Made with solid wood structure and ivory velvet upholstery and polished brass legs. The sofa is authentic, only the upholstery has been repl...
Category

Antique 1650s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sofas

Materials

Brass

Italian Modern Two Seat Sofa, c. 1950s
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This stunning two seat settee features sculpted hardwood arms with sleek and delicate legs. Unique vintage fabric adds to the mid-century appeal of this elegant Italian love seat. Ma...
Category

Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Loveseats

Materials

Upholstery

Curved Loveseat in Beige lambswool Danish 1940's Banana Sofa
By Slagelse Mobelvaerk
Located in Bridgeport, CT
Banana shaped Viggo Boesen style curved two-seat sofa or loveseat made in Denmark in the 1940s. This sofa will make a strong statement in any room. Beautiful round lines and iconic b...
Category

Vintage 1940s Danish Mid-Century Modern Loveseats

Materials

Wool, Beech

Danish 1940s Curved Sofa or Loveseat in Red Mohair
By Viggo Boesen, Slagelse Mobelvaerk
Located in Bridgeport, CT
Beautiful and very elegant 1940s curved sofa/loveseat in red mohair wool fabric. The sofa has springs in the seat and the backrest and the cushions are nice and firm and the sofa ver...
Category

Vintage 1940s Swedish Mid-Century Modern Loveseats

Materials

Mohair, Beech

Attributed Gio Ponti Midcentury Rare Velvet Curved Sofa "Casa E Giardino", 1950
By Casa e Giardino, Gio Ponti
Located in Puglia, Puglia
A rare sofa attributed Gio Ponti for Casa e Giardino from the 1950s, curved three-seater sofa. The sofa was reupholstered more than twenty years ago but the velvet is worn and I reco...
Category

Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sofas

Materials

Velvet, Beech

Danish Art Deco Curved Sofa or Loveseat 1930's
By Fritz Hansen
Located in Bridgeport, CT
Beautiful Danish curved sofa or Banana sofa as the Danes call them. This sofa is a bit unusual compared to others from the era as it has a raised backrest a detail sometimes seen in ...
Category

Vintage 1930s Danish Art Deco Loveseats

Materials

Wool, Beech

Arflex Botolo High Back Armchair in Black Fur and Black Metal Legs by Cini Boeri
By Arflex, Cini Boeri
Located in Brooklyn, NY
An innovative upholstered rolling chair with three large tubular legs. Botolo is an ideal place to sit, relax and be creative.Cini Boeri designed Botolo in 1973, giving life to a new...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Armchairs

Materials

Fur

Yakisugi Table Basse by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance
By Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance
Located in Geneve, CH
Yakisugi table basse by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance Dimensions: Ø45 x H 50 cm Materials: Solid Canaletto walnut and ash wood top, solid Canaletto walnut and ash outer structure, solid ...
Category

2010s French Organic Modern Tables

Materials

Fabric

1970s Space Age Baseball Glove Curved Sofa Loveseat
By Michel Cadestin, Airborne International
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Rare and in original condition. Inherently stylish and intriguing! For your consideration is a sleek and stylish love seat sofa in the style of Michel Cadestin, circa 1970. Elegant f...
Category

Vintage 1970s French Mid-Century Modern Loveseats

Materials

Faux Leather, Wood

Luxurious and Plush Canape in a Vibrant Stripe
Located in Bronx, NY
Luxurious and plush canape in a vibrant stripe. Recently refurbished.
Category

Late 20th Century American Loveseats

Materials

Upholstery

Top Green Marble Brutalist Side Table and Grey Stone Marble Base
Located in Antwerp, BE
A beautiful brutalist small side table with a natural stone top in veined green and a grey-stone marble base.
Category

Vintage 1960s Belgian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables

Materials

Marble, Metal

Italian Postmodern Curved Sculptural Loveseat or Sofa
By Ico Parisi, Paolo Buffa, Gio Ponti, ISA Bergamo, Federico Munari
Located in Houston, TX
Italian postmodern curved sculptural loveseat or sofa. This stunning Italian Federico Munari inspired sofa, chaise or loveseat has interesting cone shaped stainless steel legs and ha...
Category

Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Loveseats

Materials

Stainless Steel

Pair Mid-Century Gigi Radice for Minotti Italian Design 1950s Green Fabric
By Gigi Radice
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Pair Mid-Century Gigi Radice for Minotti Italian design 1950s green fabric.
Category

Vintage 1950s European Mid-Century Modern Armchairs

Materials

Metal

Soho Curved Cane-Back Chair in Walnut Wood Finish with Gray Leather Chair Seat
By Uultis Design
Located in Miami, FL
The Uultis design team has created the Soho curved cane with a cane curved back with a walnut wood finish for all those people that are looking for an elegant but vintage look in the...
Category

2010s Brazilian Armchairs

Materials

Walnut, Leather, Cane

Recent Sales

Sculptural Italian Lounge Chair
Located in Hanover, MA
Feel hugged in this anthropomorphic and ergonomically designed Italian arm chair from the 1950
Category

Vintage 1950s Italian Armchairs

Sculptural Italian Lounge Chair
Sculptural Italian Lounge Chair
H 36 in W 18.5 in D 33.5 in
Get Updated with New Arrivals
Save "Arflex Hug", and we’ll notify you when there are new listings in this category.

Arflex for sale on 1stDibs

From its unorthodox beginnings, Italian manufacturer Arflex grew into one of the leaders of 20th-century furniture design. Its furniture came to be known for its integration of new materials and bold appeal, and today a variety of vintage Arflex chairs, sofas and tables are emblems of mid-century modernism.

Arflex was established in Milan in 1947 by Pirelli employees Carlo Barassi, Pio Reggiani, Renato Teani and Aldo Bai. Barassi, a Milan Polytechnic graduate and visionary engineer at the Italian tire manufacturer, explored innovative technology and new uses for synthetic materials in domestic products (for Kartell, he codeveloped a ski rack for automobiles). The four founders partnered with a young architect named Marco Zanuso, who also desired to create furniture that featured an application of novel materials such as elastic tape and polyurethane foam.

One of Arflex’s inaugural pieces was Zanuso’s Lady armchair, a seat made of polyurethane foam that was manufactured in pieces and assembled at the very end of the production process. It won a gold medal at the 1951 Milan Triennale. A couple of years later, Arflex collaborated with Studio BBPR to create the office-chic Elettra and Neptunia chairs. The flourishing furniture company quickly established a reputation for compelling products and attracting and working with up-and-coming designers such as Roberto Menghi, who created Hall, a luxurious line of seating that would earn the Compasso d’Oro – Honorable Mention in 1959.

In the 1960s, Arflex continued to welcome the use of new and cutting-edge materials. Popular designs from this decade include Carlo Bartoli's fiberglass and polyester resin Gaia lounge chair and Cini Boer’s Bobo Relax lounger, one of history’s first seating pieces made of polyurethane foam (it has no internal frame). Boer, a pioneer of furniture design in Italy, also created the Strips sofa for the brand in 1972. Part of a plush modular seating system, the Strips sofa became an Arflex icon and was awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1979.

Arflex continues to work with innovative designers to this day. Among their more recent collaborations is with Swedish design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune. The company's legendary creations are also on display at museums worldwide. The Lady chair, for example, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

On 1stDibs, you can find a collection of vintage Arflex lounge chairs, armchairs, coffee tables and other furniture.

A Close Look at Modern Furniture

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”

Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.

Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chaircrafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.

It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.

Finding the Right Seating for You

With entire areas of our homes reserved for “sitting rooms,” the value of quality antique and vintage seating cannot be overstated.

Fortunately, the design of side chairs, armchairs and other lounge furniture — since what were, quite literally, the early perches of our ancestors — has evolved considerably.

Among the earliest standard seating furniture were stools. Egyptian stools, for example, designed for one person with no seat back, were x-shaped and typically folded to be tucked away. These rudimentary chairs informed the design of Greek and Roman stools, all of which were a long way from Sori Yanagi's Butterfly stool or Alvar Aalto's Stool 60. In the 18th century and earlier, seats with backs and armrests were largely reserved for high nobility.

The seating of today is more inclusive but the style and placement of chairs can still make a statement. Antique desk chairs and armchairs designed in the style of Louis XV, which eventually included painted furniture and were often made of rare woods, feature prominently curved legs as well as Chinese themes and varied ornaments. Much like the thrones of fairy tales and the regency, elegant lounges crafted in the Louis XV style convey wealth and prestige. In the kitchen, the dining chair placed at the head of the table is typically reserved for the head of the household or a revered guest.

Of course, with luxurious vintage or antique furnishings, every chair can seem like the best seat in the house. Whether your preference is stretching out on a plush sofa, such as the Serpentine, designed by Vladimir Kagan, or cozying up in a vintage wingback chair, there is likely to be a comfy classic or contemporary gem for you on 1stDibs.

With respect to the latest obsessions in design, cane seating has been cropping up everywhere, from sleek armchairs to lounge chairs, while bouclé fabric, a staple of modern furniture design, can be seen in mid-century modern, Scandinavian modern and Hollywood Regency furniture styles.

Admirers of the sophisticated craftsmanship and dark woods frequently associated with mid-century modern seating can find timeless furnishings in our expansive collection of lounge chairs, dining chairs and other items — whether they’re vintage editions or alluring official reproductions of iconic designs from the likes of Hans Wegner or from Charles and Ray Eames. Shop our inventory of Egg chairs, designed in 1958 by Arne Jacobsen, the Florence Knoll lounge chair and more.

No matter your style, the collection of unique chairs, sofas and other seating on 1stDibs is surely worthy of a standing ovation.