Kartell Space Age

Joe Colombo Plastic Chair

Kartell Modular

Modular Drawers

Kartell 1970s

Joe Colombo For Kartell

Giotto Stoppino Magazine Rack For Kartell

Materials

Plastic

$2,900

4993 Dining Table, Anna Castelli Ferrieri and Ignazio Gardell for Kartell, 1967

Located in Las Vegas, NV

Round dining table for Kartell in green fiberglass-reinforced resin sitting on tripod base. Designed by Kartell co-founder Anna Castelli Ferrieri, this early design accentuates the b...

Category

Late 20th Century Italian Space Age Dining Room Tables

Materials

Chrome

Set of Eight 1970s Kartell Wall Hooks by Olaf von Bohr, Vintage Design

$1,875 / set

Set of Eight 1970s Kartell Wall Hooks by Olaf von Bohr, Vintage Design

By Olaf von Bohr

Located in Vigevano, PV

Set of 8 1970s Kartell Wall Hooks by Olaf von Bohr

Category

Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Coat Racks and Stands

Materials

Plastic

$1,193 / item

Luigi Bandini Buti model 4021 blue metacrilato pendant lamp for Kartell, Italy

By Luigi Bandini Buti

Located in Weesp, NL

Luigi Bandini Buti model 4021 blue metacrilato pendant lamp for Kartell, Italy, 1960s A striking Space Age pendant lamp designed by architect Luigi Bandini Buti for Kartell, Italy, ...

Category

Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Materials

Metal

$2,125 / set

H 30.52 in W 27.56 in D 29.14 in L 30.52 in

Pair of "4794" Armchairs by Gae Aulenti for Kartell, Italy, 1972

By Gae Aulenti, Kartell

Located in Milan, IT

Pair of small armchairs model 4794 by Gae Aulenti for Kartell. Green lacquered polyurethane foam body.

Category

Vintage 1970s Lounge Chairs

Materials

Materials

Chrome

Japanese Antique Large Black Tansu 1860s-1900s / Cabinet Sideboard Wabi Sabi

$4,000

H 50.01 in W 61.42 in D 29.93 in

Japanese Antique Large Black Tansu 1860s-1900s / Cabinet Sideboard Wabi Sabi

Located in Chōsei District Nagara, JP

This is an old large Tansu made in Japan. This furniture was made during the Meiji period (1860s-1900s). The material used is cedar wood. The iron metal fittings in the center add an...

Category

Early 20th Century Japanese Meiji Cabinets

Materials

Iron

$107,991

H 29.14 in W 66.93 in D 21.66 in

Utö Library Table by Axel Einar Hjorth for Nordiska Kompaniet, Sweden, 1932

By Axel Einar Hjorth, Nordiska Kompaniet

Located in Hønefoss, 30

Rare and authentic Utö library table designed by Axel Einar Hjorth, manufactured by Nordiska Kompaniet, Sweden, 1932. Wear consistent with age and use, including surface scratches, m...

Category

Mid-20th Century Swedish Mid-Century Modern Console Tables

Materials

Pine

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Kartell Space Age For Sale on 1stDibs

Choose from an assortment of styles, material and more with respect to the kartell space age you’re looking for at 1stDibs. Frequently made of plastic, metal and wood, every kartell space age was constructed with great care. There are 147 variations of the antique or vintage kartell space age you’re looking for, while we also have 1 modern editions of this piece to choose from as well. You’ve searched high and low for the perfect kartell space age — we have versions that date back to the 19th Century alongside those produced as recently as the 21st Century are available. A kartell space age made by mid-century modern designers — as well as those associated with modern — is very popular. Kartell, Joe Colombo and Giotto Stoppino each produced at least one beautiful kartell space age that is worth considering.

How Much is a Kartell Space Age?

A kartell space age can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price 1stDibs is $1,072, while the lowest priced sells for $125 and the highest can go for as much as $15,205.

A Close Look at Space-age Furniture

Vintage Space Age furniture captured post–World War II optimism with swooping shapes, bowed lines and experimentation with new materials including plastic and fiberglass.

From the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957 to the landing of Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon in 1969, the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States propelled advancements in technology that transformed culture. Space Age design encompassed fashion, architecture, cars, furniture and objects for the home, bringing wonder and hope for the future into everyday life.

Coinciding with Pop art, Space Age style featured bold colors and forms. Eero Aarnio’s Ball chair, which debuted in 1966, used molded fiberglass for a capsule-like space while Verner Panton’s 1959 Panton chair was a single piece of molded plastic for a gravity-defying S shape. Red versions of Olivier Mourgue’s 1964 Djinn chair were futuristic enough to appear on the space station in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Today, Joe Colombo is revered as a master of modern Italian design thanks to the provocative modular furniture pieces he created, such as the Tube chair and the Elda armchair, both of which embody the future-forward spirit of the Space Age.

The Space Age spirit extended to home building too. The futuristic Case Study Houses, which were designed by the likes of Pierre Koenig, Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra and Whitney R. Smith, are considered a high point of modernism and the Southern California lifestyle.

Sometimes the nods to space exploration were more literal, like moon and star motifs or the 1965 Eclisse lamp by Vico Magistretti that saw the mid-century Italian designer integrating a movable inner shade to “eclipse” the light source. Alongside the pioneering moon missions, JVC manufactured the Videosphere portable television reminiscent of the Apollo 11 space helmets.

Although the style faded in the 1970s — with the 1975 joining of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts signaling a new era of cooperation and the global oil crisis impacting the availability of plastics — the era’s innovations influenced designers into the 21st century such as Zaha Hadid and Djivan Schapira.

Find a collection of vintage Space Age seating, tables, lighting and other furniture on 1stDibs.

Materials: Plastic Furniture

Arguably the world’s most ubiquitous man-made material, plastic has impacted nearly every industry. In contemporary spaces, new and vintage plastic furniture is quite popular and its use pairs well with a range of design styles.

From the Italian lighting artisans at Fontana Arte to venturesome Scandinavian modernists such as Verner Panton, who created groundbreaking interiors as much as he did seating — see his revolutionary Panton chair — to contemporary multidisciplinary artists like Faye Toogood, furniture designers have been pushing the boundaries of plastic forever.

When The Graduate's Mr. McGuire proclaimed, “There’s a great future in plastics,” it was more than a laugh line. The iconic quote is an allusion both to society’s reliance on and its love affair with plastic. Before the material became an integral part of our lives — used in everything from clothing to storage to beauty and beyond — people relied on earthly elements for manufacturing, a process as time-consuming as it was costly.

Soon after American inventor John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid, which could mimic luxury products like tortoiseshell and ivory, production hit fever pitch, and the floodgates opened for others to explore plastic’s full potential. The material altered the history of design — mid-century modern legends Charles and Ray Eames, Joe Colombo and Eero Saarinen regularly experimented with plastics in the development of tables and chairs, and today plastic furnishings and decorative objects are seen as often indoors as they are outside.

Find vintage plastic lounge chairs, outdoor furniture, lighting and more on 1stDibs.