Marema Frattini

Furniture manufacturer Cassina is a prolific design house for more reasons than one: It not only owns the licenses to an exquisite collection of iconic chairs, sofas, tables and other pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries but also produces original works that are characterized by innovation and the finest Italian craftsmanship.

Cassina’s illustrious legacy includes being one of the first companies to bring industrial design to Italy in the 1950s. Founded in 1927 in Meda, Italy, by brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina, the Italian manufacturing giant originally specialized in bespoke woodworking. In nearly a century since its founding, the company has shown incredible foresight about design trends and the evolution of technology.

In 1964, Cassina signed an exclusive licensing agreement to manufacture furniture by Le Corbusier and his collaborators — such as the LC4 chaise longue made with trailblazing French modernist Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret — a move that would shape the future of the company. Cassina’s I Maestri collection is an ongoing initiative to restyle landmark designs from the 20th century, such as pieces by Gerrit Rietveld (the Red and Blue armchair from 1918), Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Erik Gunnar Asplund, Franco Albini and Frank Lloyd Wright. The company preserves the intentions and original styles of their designs but adds updated techniques, materials and processes — rendering them the best possible combination of past, present and future. The brand has also worked with contemporary icons like Zaha Hadid, Gio Ponti and Philippe Starck.

Cassina’s original designs are cutting-edge as well. They include pieces for everyday use, the development of which is guided by comfort and the marriage of Italian craftsmanship with industrial technology.

Some of Cassina’s pieces, both from its contemporary and I Maestri collections, can be found in the collections of museums like the Museum of Modern Art and the Vitra Design Museum. In 2014, the company became part of Haworth in its acquisition of Italian furniture group Poltrona Frau, and in 2015, Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola joined Cassina as its art director, leading the brand into its next century of inventive style.

Find a collection of new and vintage Cassina furniture on 1stDibs.

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.

The right vintage, new or antique tables can help make any space in your home stand out.

Over the years, the variety of tables available to us, as well as our specific needs for said tables, has broadened. Today, with all manner of these must-have furnishings differing in shape, material and style, any dining room table can shine just as brightly as the guests who gather around it.

Remember, when shopping for a dining table, it must fit your dining area, and you need to account for space around the table too — think outside the box, as an oval dining table may work for tighter spaces. Alternatively, if you’ve got the room, a Regency-style dining table can elevate any formal occasion at mealtime.

Innovative furniture makers and designers have also redefined what a table can be. Whether it’s an unconventional Ping-Pong table, a brass side table to display your treasured collectibles or a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk to add an air of nostalgia to your loft, your table can say a lot about you.

The visionary work of French designer Xavier Lavergne, for example, includes tables that draw on the forms of celestial bodies as often as they do aquatic creatures or fossils. Elsewhere, Italian architect Gae Aulenti, who looked to Roman architecture in crafting her stately Jumbo coffee table, created clever glass-topped mobile coffee tables that move on bicycle tires or sculpted wood wheels for Fontana Arte. 

Coffee and cocktail tables can serve as a room’s centerpiece with attention-grabbing details and colors. Glass varieties will keep your hardwood flooring and dazzling area rugs on display, while a marble or stone coffee table in a modern interior can showcase your prized art books and decorative objects. A unique vintage desk or writing table can bring sophistication and even a bit of spice to your work life. 

No matter your desired form or function, a quality table for your living space is a sound investment. On 1stDibs, browse a collection of vintage, new and antique bedside tables, mid-century end tables and more .