Minotti Hamilton Sofa

Tradition, exquisite craftsmanship and incomparable quality are at the heart of Minotti, a family-owned furniture design company founded in 1948. But so is being a representative of the best of “Made in Italy” on the global level.

Minotti was established as a small-scale artisan workshop by Alberto Minotti in his hometown of Meda, not far from Milan. The company became known for refined upholstered sofas and other seating, and its profile expanded considerably during the 1950s and 1960s. A collaboration with designer and architect Gigi Radice during the era led to some of the brand’s most classic and coveted mid-century pieces, such as his playful and brightly colored curved sofa and armchairs.

Alberto’s sons, Roberto and Renato, had worked with their father intermittently to learn the family business and, with their mother’s encouragement, took the reins when the patriarch passed away in 1991. By the end of the 20th century, Minotti had grown into an internationally renowned company, helmed by the second and third generations of the Minotti family.

Minotti isn’t a name that is splashed across magazine covers, but the brand is revered for its clever seating systems, such as its flexible and understated Hamilton collection of sofas and chaise longues padded with goose down and classic upholstered furniture, as well as its sleek, modern Elliott coffee tables, which integrate premium marble and polished gold. This marriage of elegant contemporary design coupled with respect for tradition reflects Minotti’s design process: Expert artisans use traditional Italian skills and techniques to hand-finish products made by precise and cutting-edge industrial machinery.

The manufacturing process for Minotti's sophisticated Rivera armchairs and sofas, which include woven polypropylene-fiber backrests and tubular metal frames, for example, begins with computer-controlled machinery that assembles the structures based on designs, but the pieces are joined and finished by hand. It is telling that the company’s motto, known as the Minotti Code, is “Innovation in the spirit of continuity.”

In the late 1990s, Renato and Roberto Minotti initiated a partnership with Milanese architect and designer Rodolfo Dordoni — who created the Elliott tables — and also launched Minotti Studio, the “creative soul of the company” that is central to engineering, design, supply-chain logistics and more. Collaborations over the years have included projects with Nendo, Marcio Kogan and Studio MK27, Christophe Delcourt and more. 

Today, Minotti has a presence in almost 70 countries, and the company’s offerings — which span collections for indoor and outdoor residential and hospitality spaces — include everything from lounge chairs to tables to sideboards, armchairs and more. 

Find Minotti furniture for sale on 1stDibs.

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 chair — crafted 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.

Black leather, silk velvet cushions, breathable bouclé fabric — when shopping for antique or vintage sofas, today’s couch connoisseurs have much to choose from in terms of style and shape. But it wasn’t always thus. 

The sofa is typically defined as a long upholstered seat that features a back and arms and is intended for two or more people. While the term “couch” comes from the Old French couche, meaning to lie down, and sofa has Eastern origins, both are forms of divan, a Turkish word that means an elongated cushioned seat. Bench-like seating in Ancient Greece, which was padded with soft blankets, was called klinai. No matter how you spell it, sofa just means comfort, at least it does today.

In the early days of sofa design, upholstery consisted of horsehair or dried moss. Sofas that originated in countries such as France during the 17th century were more integral to decor than they were to comfort. Like most Baroque furnishings from the region, they frequently comprised heavy, gilded mahogany frames and were upholstered in floral Beauvais tapestry. Today, options abound when it comes to style and material, with authentic leather offerings and classy steel settees. Plush, velvet chesterfields represent the platonic ideal of coziness. 

Vladimir Kagan’s iconic sofa designs, such as the Crescent and the Serpentine — which, like the sectional sofas of the 1960s created by furniture makers such as Harvey Probber, are quite popular among mid-century modern furniture enthusiasts — showcase the spectrum of style available to modern consumers. Those looking to make a statement can turn to Studio 65’s lip-shaped Bocca sofa, which was inspired by the work of Salvador Dalí. Elsewhere, the furniture of the 1970s evokes an era when experimentation ruled, or at least provided a reason to break the rules. Just about every area of society felt a sudden urge to be wayward, to push boundaries — and buttons. Vintage leather sofas of that decade are characterized by a rare blending of the showy and organic.

With so many options, it’s important to explore and find the perfect furniture for your space. Paying attention to the lines of the cushions as well as the flow from the backrest into the arms is crucial to identifying a cohesive new piece for your home or office.

Fortunately, with styles from every era — and even round sofas — there’s a luxurious piece for every space. Deck out your living room with an Art Deco lounge or go retro with a nostalgic '80s design. No matter your sitting vision, the right piece is waiting for you in the expansive collection of unique sofas on 1stDibs.