Bonacina Shelves

Italian

For more than 130 years, Italian furniture producer Bonacina has fostered the fine art of rattan weaving. The company’s vast collection of alluring furniture pieces was developed under four generations of the Bonacina family. Bonacina is now leading a rattan resurgence with its line of beautiful and stylish chairs, including lounge chairs and armchairs.

Bonacina was founded in 1889 by Giovanni Bonacina in the renowned Italian furniture-making region of Brianza. He drew on the area’s history of basketry, using local cane and reed, in addition to Southeast Asian rattan, to weave furniture. Every piece of Bonacina furniture was and continues to be handmade.

In the 1950s, the company passed to Giovanni’s son, Vittorio Bonacina. Vittorio had a finger on the pulse of modern furniture design and moved Bonacina forward through collaborations with acclaimed mid-century creators like Gio Ponti, Renzo Mongiardino, Gae Aulenti, Joe Colombo and Franco Albini. Albini’s Margherita chair endures as one of Bonacina’s most iconic designs.

Vittorio’s son, Mario Bonacina, helmed the company in the 1980s. Mario embarked on a project to release updated versions of some of Bonacina’s historical pieces. He continued working with modern designers and encouraged a company ethos of environmental sustainability.

Mario’s son, Elia Bonacina, joined the company in 2012. In 2013, Elia designed the Eris rattan lighting fixture, bringing a fresh perspective to the company's catalogue. In 2015, he acquired the Italian furniture brand Pierantonio Bonacina, which was started by another Bonacina family branch, and established a joint venture named Bonacina1889 s.r.l.

Bonacina’s exceptional designs have earned the company accolades at international exhibitions, including top prizes at the Triennale Milano and multiple Compasso d’Oro awards. Today, Bonacina retains the use of traditional materials and techniques while looking to the future. Most recently, it expanded into the outdoor furniture market.

On 1stDibs, find Bonacina seating, garden furniture, wall mirrors and more.

Creator: Bonacina

Franco Albini for Bonacina Bamboo and Rattan Corner Etagere, Italy 1960s

By Franco Albini, Bonacina

Located in Naples, IT

Rattan corner shelf by Franco Albini for Bonacina, Italy 1960, made with bamboo canes and wavy edge. Very good condition.

Category

1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Bonacina Shelves

Materials

Bamboo, Wicker, Rattan

Franco Albini for Bonacina Bamboo and Rattan Corner Etagere, Italy 1960s

Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Bonacina Shelves

Materials

Bamboo, Rattan, Wood

Midcentury Triangular Bamboo and Rattan Italian Corner Shelves, 1970s

H 34.65 in W 23.23 in D 11.82 in

Franco Albini Rosewood Mid-Century Modern “LB7” Modular Bookcase for Poggi, 1957

By Poggi, Franco Albini

Located in Vicenza, IT

LB7 bookcase, designed by Franco Albini and manufactured by Poggi in 1957. Modular bookstore composed by upholds, containers with flying and doors, shelve. The industrial standard for every product component allows permanent and different solutions, from the bearing structures to the elements. The structure does not need anchorages to the wall and can be placed in the middle of the space. This set is composed of 3 modules, ten shelves, and three containers. It is made of Rosewood, iron, and brass. Excellent vintage condition. Franco Albini was born in Robbiate in 1905, and after his childhood and part of his youth, he moved to Milan. He graduated at Politecnico of Milan, Faculty of Architecture, in 1929, and He collaborated for three years in Giò Ponti and Emilio Lancia’s office. He probably had his international contacts here, at The International Exposition of 1929 in Barcelona and Paris, where he visited le Corbusier’s office, as Franca Helg used to tell. Throughout these first three years, his works were undoubtedly related to XIXth Century. His meeting with Edoardo Persico marks an evident turnover towards rationalism and writers for “Casabella” magazine. Persico’s thoughtful and ironical comments on some of Albini’s drawings for office furniture caused him deep upsetting. “I spent days of real anxiety – tells Albini – I had to answer all questions. I had a long fever”. The new phase that the meeting provoked begins with opening his own first office at Via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of Architects starts taking care of social housing, participating in the competition for the Baracca neighborhood in 1932, and then realizing the Ifacp neighborhood: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D’Annunzio, and Ettore Ponti (1939). During those years, He also worked for his first private villa (Pestarini). It is mainly in the context of exhibitions that the Italian architect experiments the compromise between rigor and poetic fantasy that Pagano was talking about; He conceived all the elements that would become recurrent in all types of his work – Architecture, Interiors, Design. The 1933 opening of the new Triennale of Milano, in Palazzo dell’Arte, becomes an occasion to express the highly innovative character of rationalist thinking. In this place, to experiment with new materials and solutions, but most of all a “method”. Young rationalist architects cultivated the art of exhibiting as a communication lab, an open field to space solutions. Albini, with Giancarlo Palanti, sets the steel structure house (with R. Camus, G. Mazzoleni, G. Minoletti and coordination by G. Pagano) designing also its furniture. For the next Triennale in 1936, marked by Persico’s early death, Franco Albini, together with a group of young architects around Pagano, takes care of the exhibition of Dwelling, where he presented 3 types of lodgings. In the same year, Albini and Romano design the exhibition for Ancient Italian jewelry: vertical uprights, simple linear poles design space. This element is recurring in other works, like the Scipione exhibition (1941), Vanzetti stand (1942), and Olivetti shop in Paris (1956). The architectural space is readable through a grid, introducing a third dimension, the vertical one, with a sense of lightness and transparency. Upright is also used in design objects, such as the Veliero bookcase...

Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Bonacina Shelves

Materials

Brass, Iron

Franco Albini Rosewood Mid-Century Modern “LB7” Modular Bookcase for Poggi, 1957

H 109.45 in W 104.34 in D 13.78 in

Mid Century Bamboo and Rattan Étagère Shelves, Italy, circa 1960

Located in London, GB

A Mid Century bamboo and rattan three-tier Italian étagère (shelves) dating from the 1960s. In excellent condition commensurate of age.

Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Bonacina Shelves

Materials

Bamboo, Rattan

Mid Century Bamboo and Rattan Étagère Shelves, Italy, circa 1960

H 33.47 in W 30.32 in D 13.78 in

Midcentury Wall Shelf or Console, Rattan and Bamboo, Franco Albini, Italy, 1960s

By Franco Albini

Located in Roma, IT

Marvellous large rectangular wall shelf in bamboo and rattan. This unique object was made in Italy in the 1960s and is attributed to the mastery of Franco Albini. This lovely item c...

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