Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables

An architect, industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, Ettore Sottsass led a revolution in the aesthetics and technology of modern design in the late 20th century.
Sottsass was the oldest member of the Memphis Group — a design collective, formed in Milan in 1980, whose irreverent, spirited members included Alessandro Mendini, Michele de Lucchi, Michael Graves and Shiro Kuramata. All had grown disillusioned by the staid, black-and-brown “corporatized” modernism that had become endemic in the 1970s. Memphis (the name stemmed from the title of a Bob Dylan song) countered with bold, brash, colorful, yet quirkily minimal designs for furniture, glassware, ceramics and metalwork. They mocked high-status by building furniture with inexpensive materials such as plastic laminates, decorated to resemble exotic finishes such as animal skins. Their work was both functional and — as intended — shocking.
Sottsass's most-recognized designs appeared in the first Memphis collection, issued in 1981 — notably the multihued, angular Carlton room divider and Casablanca bookcase. As pieces on 1stDibs demonstrate, however, Sottsass is at his most imaginative and expressive in smaller, secondary furnishings such as lamps and chandeliers, and in table pieces and glassware that have playful and sculptural qualities.
It was as an artist that Ettore Sottsass was celebrated in his life, in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 2006, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art a year later. Even then Sottsass’s work prompted critical debate. And for a man whose greatest pleasure was in astonishing, delighting and ruffling feathers, perhaps there was no greater accolade. That the work remains so revolutionary and bold — that it breaks with convention so sharply it will never be considered mainstream — is a testament to his genius.
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Plastic, Wood
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble, Metal
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1970s Italian Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
1980s Italian Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
Early 2000s Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
Early 2000s Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
Early 2000s Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel
Early 2000s Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel
1990s Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
Early 2000s Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel
Early 2000s Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood, Ash
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel, Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Mirror, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum, Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum, Glass
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Late 20th Century Italian Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
20th Century Italian Memphis Group Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Late 20th Century American Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
1990s Italian Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
1980s Italian Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble, Metal
1980s Italian Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble, Metal
1980s Italian Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
1980s Italian Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
1980s Austrian Post-Modern Vintage Ettore Sottsass Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal