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Franco Albini Tables

Italian, 1905-1977

While working under the polymath Gio Ponti — arguably the most important figure in 20th-century Italian modernism — furniture designer Franco Albini nurtured a love for modern forms combined with traditional craft techniques.

Albini is widely known for working with organic materials such as rattan and cane for his chairs and other seating, but he also played a pivotal role in the Italian rationalist movement of the early 20th century, which saw architects and furniture makers applying a strict emphasis on geometry in their work. Rationalists drew on Ancient Roman architecture but rejected ornament, much in the way that Le Corbusier and celebrated Bauhaus figures such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had in their modernist furniture.

Albini received his degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1929, and, in 1931, he founded his practice in Milan, where he tackled workers’ housing and other reconstruction projects. A gifted urban planner, he also developed the Palazzo Bianco, Palazzo Rosso and Tesoro di San Lorenzo museums in Genoa. While Albini is revered for his Margherita chair — a Triennale Milano award winner created for Bonacina in 1951 — he also collaborated with manufacturers Poggi and Cassina in the 1940s on seating, tables and more that embodied his artistic vision. Of that mid-century work, the one piece that perhaps best captures this vision is the iconic Luisa chair.

With its cherry red upholstery and sinuous wooden legs that seem to float aboveground, the Luisa is a genuine masterpiece. It is also a testament to Albini’s perfectionism, as it endured several prototypes — including one made by Knoll in the late 1940s — and took approximately 15 years to design. Poggi launched the final version of the armchair in 1955, earning Albini the prestigious Compasso d’Oro from Italy’s Association for Industrial Design. It is produced today by Cassina. Albini named the chair for someone who likely saw the process firsthand: his personal secretary of two decades, Luisa Colombini.

Find vintage Franco Albini furniture on 1stDibs.

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Creator: Franco Albini
Franco Albini TL2 Cavalletto table Poggi Italy 1950
By Franco Albini
Located in Roosendaal, Noord Brabant
Iconic and early example of the TL2 'Cavalletto' table designed by Franco Albini and manufactured by Poggi in Italy around 1950. The table has an amazing dynamic and archtectural sha...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Brass

Carrello bar in legno ''CR20'' di Franco Albini per Poggi, Italia, 1958
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Quarrata, IT
Carrello bar disegnato da Franco Albini per Poggi, struttura in legno. Produzione Poggi, Italia, 1958.
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1950s Italian Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini Table 840 Stadera Wood and Steel by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Table designed by Franco Albini in 1954. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. This table/writing desk, designed by Franco Albini consists of two trapezoidal planes, one smaller than th...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Steel

Franco Albini Desk for Knoll International, USA 1960
By Franco Albini
Located in Amsterdam, NL
A wonderful desk designed by Franco Albini and manufactured by Knoll International in the USA around 1960. The unique frame of the table has chrome plated crossed legs on each side ...
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1960s American Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

1960s Gorgeous Magazine Rack by Franco Albini, Made in Italy
By Franco Albini
Located in Milano, IT
1960s Gorgeous and elegant serving bar cart in bamboo & rattan by Franco Albini. The structure featuring two shelves, the lower one features six bottle holders. Made in Italy. The ca...
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1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Bamboo

Franco Albini Cicognino Wood Side Table for Cassina, Italy, new
By Cassina, Franco Albini
Located in Berlin, DE
Prices vary dependent on the material of the table. The price given applies to the piece as shown in the first picture. Available in Canaletto Walnut, Natural Ash, Black Stained Ash ...
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini Desk for Knoll International, USA 1960
By Franco Albini, Knoll
Located in Amsterdam, NL
A wonderful desk designed by Franco Albini and manufactured by Knoll International in the USA around 1960. The unique frame of the table has chrome plated crossed legs on each side ...
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1960s European Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini ash dining table Model TL2 Cavalletto, Poggi, (Very First Edition)
By Amando Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Argelato, BO
Franco Albini ash dining table Model TL2 'Cavalletto' for Poggi, Italy (Very First Edition), Italy 1950s This table is the very first edition (the one in ash) of Franco Albini's fam...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini desk with mobile chest of drawers mod. T22, Italian Design 1950s
By Franco Albini
Located in Milan, IT
This desk set with movable drawer unit is a classic rationalist design with attention to clean forms and lines by Franco Albini. The desk is functional with a shape that is both ergo...
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1950s Italian Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

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...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Brass, Iron

Desk "1928" by Franco Albini for Knoll International, Italy, 1950s
By Franco Albini
Located in Greding, DE
Desk "1928" designed by Franco Albini for Knoll International, Italy, 1950s. This glass and metal desk features a veneered white drawer element an...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Serving Trolley Model CR20 In Mahogany By Franco Albini for Poggi, Italy 1958
By Franco Albini, Franca Helg, Poggi
Located in Hellouw, NL
Franco Albini was a significant figure in modern Italian design of the twentieth century. His creations are characterized by an aesthetic that can best be described as elegant minima...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Mahogany

Mid-Century Stadera Desk Model 840 by Franco Albini for Poggi, Italy, 1950s
By Franco Albini
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern Stadera Desk Model 840 by Franco Albini for Poggi, Italy, 1950s
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto desk/dining table by Franco Albini for Poggi
By Franco Albini
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto desk/dining table by Franco Albini for Poggi, 1950s
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini for Poggi Dining Table in Walnut
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Waalwijk, NL
Franco Albini for Poggi, dining table, model TL2, walnut and iron, Italy, 1951. The TL2 table by Franco Albini features a simplistic and sleek design. Executed in darkened walnut wo...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Iron

Early Franco Albini for Knoll Model '80' Desk
By Knoll, Franco Albini
Located in Waalwijk, NL
Franco Albini for Knoll, model 80, glass, lacquered wood, lacquered steel, Italy, 1949 Franco Albini’s model 80 desk combines glass, steel and wood which resu...
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1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Chrome

Franco Albini Cavalletto Table, Black Stained Wood by Cassina
By Cassina, Franco Albini
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Table designed by Franco Albini in 1950. Relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. This table, with its minimal lines and an extremely light look, underscores the extens...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini teak dining Table Model TL2 'Cavalletto' for Poggi, Italy 1950s
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Chiavari, Liguria
A dining table or desk Model TL2 by Franco Albini, better known as "Cavalletto", is an iconic piece designed by the esteemed Italian maestro in the 1950s. This table embodies the ess...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Brass

20th Century Franco Albini Pair of TN6 Cicognino Coffee Tables in Wood, 50s
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Turin, Turin
An iconic design with a refined and essential taste, which in its playful form evokes a reassuring feeling of familiarity. Franco Albini created the table by reducing its structure t...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

TL30 Table by Franco Albini for Poggi
By Franco Albini
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Model TL30 marble table designed by Franco Albini for Poggi, Pavia. Made in Italy circa 1950s. Reference: G. Gramigna, "Repertorio del design italiano 1950-2000", p. 53, Allemandi, ...
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1950s Italian Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Carrara Marble, Metal

Stadera Writing Desk Model 840 Franco Albini for Poggi
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Rovereta, SM
Rare and important writing desk model Stadera designed by Franco Albini for the Poggi manufacture in 1959. Model 840. Made of noble wood for its shelf, in perfect preserved conditi...
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Iron

Franco Albini Tl3 Table, Black Dyed Wood and Glass by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2013. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Franco Albini designed this table using the strut element that he had already employed in the design of the Veliero and Infinito bookshelves. In this instance, the legs serve as the vertical elements, solid, turned along their entire surface except for the square section onto which the horizontal table...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Glass, Wood

Model Tl2 Desk / Dining Table by Franco Albini for Poggi, Italy, 1951
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Skokie, IL
Franco Albini model TL2 desk or dining table for Poggi, Italy, 1950s Franco Albini for Poggi, dining table model TL2, walnut and metal, Italy, 1951. The TL2 table by Franco Alb...
Category

20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Palisander

Franco Albini Cicognino Wood Side Table by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Side table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Dubbed Cicognino, or “little stork”, this iconic design, is clean-cut and refi...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini for Poggi Table or Desk, Italy, 1960s
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Almelo, NL
Franco Albini for Poggi table or desk, Italy, 1960s Walnut table TL22 model by Franco Albini for Poggi Italy 1960s. It is in excellent condition, with a minor patina on the wood parts. This unique table or desk would be an eye-catching addition to any interior, such as a living room, family room, screening room, or office. It also perfectly fits in a hospitality or corporate location like a boutique hotel lobby or luxury loft. When you choose for used mid...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood, Walnut

Dining Room Table / Franco Albini / 1951
By Franco Albini
Located in Berlin, DE
The unusual feature of this table is the solid wooden top. This graceful table by Italian architect and designer Franco Albini was designed in 1951. The model, known as 'TL2', is ma...
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Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Iron

Franco Albini Cavalletto Table, Wood by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Table designed by Franco Albini in 1950. Relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. This table, with its minimal lines and an extremely light look, underscores the ext...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini Cavalletto Table for Cassina, Italy, new
By Cassina, Franco Albini
Located in Berlin, DE
Available in Canaletto Walnut, natural ash and black stained ash. Prices vary dependent on the chosen material/finish. Table designed by Franco Albini in 1950. Relaunched in 2008...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini Cicognino Wood Side Table by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Side table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Dubbed Cicognino, or “little stork”, this iconic design, is clean-cut and refi...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini TL3 Table, Wood and Glass by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2013. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Franco Albini designed this table using the strut element that he had already employed in the design of the Veliero and Infinito bookshelves. In this instance, the legs serve as the vertical elements, solid, turned along their entire surface except for the square section onto which the horizontal table...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Glass, Wood

Wooden Dining Table TL22 Model by Franco Albini for Poggi 60s
By Franco Albini, Poggi
Located in Padova, IT
Wooden dining table TL22 model by Franco Albini for Poggi 60s. Born in Milan in 1905, Franco Albini is an Italian architect, urban planner and furniture designer, active between the 1930s and 1960s. He studied at the Milan Polytechnic and completed his apprenticeship under the guidance of the architect and designer Gio Ponti, and played a key role in the formulation of the Italian Rationalist movement in the years before the Second World War. Albini works with several well-known mid-century manufacturers, among which Cassina, Arflex, Poggi, Arteluce, Brionvega, and Knoll stand out, and many of his designs are still in production today. He has received many honors for his work, including three Compasso d'Oro. The professional story of the furniture maker Roberto Poggi...
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1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini for Poggi Model 840 Stadera Desk
By Franco Albini, Poggi
Located in Milano, IT
Rare and important desk model Stadera designed by Franco Albini for the Poggi manufacture, in 1959. Model 840. Made of noble wood for its shelf, the desk is the perfect modernist ele...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini TL3 Table for Cassina, Italy, new
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Berlin, DE
The price given applies to the piece as seen in the first picture. Prices vary dependent on the size and chosen material of the table. The base is available in solid ash wood or American walnut. The table is available in a rectangular or round version (the latter measures 130 cm in diameter and 75 cm in height) Table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2013. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Franco Albini designed this table using the strut element that he had already employed in the design of the Veliero and Infinito bookshelves. In this instance, the legs serve as the vertical elements, solid, turned along their entire surface except for the square section onto which the horizontal table...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Ash, Walnut, Glass, Wood

Franco Albini Cicognino Wood Side Table by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Side table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Dubbed Cicognino, or “little stork”, this iconic design, is clean-cut and refi...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini Bonacina Mid Century Margherita Chair & Coffee Table- 2 Pieces
By Franco Albini
Located in Basel, BS
The "Margherita chair" by Franco Albini is one of the most notable pieces of furniture created by the Lombard architect and designer Franco Albini in the 1950s. He partnered with Franca Helg for various projects in years. Albini’s inspiration in creating the chair is to suspend things and people in the air. Since it is a wooden, rattan and reed chair, a garden is the perfect setting for it. Just after a year of its creation, Margherita chair won first place at the 9th Milan Triennale. Moreover, MoMA in New York City, the Museum of Art in Philadelphia, and the Triennale Design Museum in Milan showcased this beautiful and stunning wooden chair. The name ‘Margherita’ is an Italian word meaning “daisy.” Moreover, the rattan and reed structure will give anyone who sits on it the confidence. It helps abandon every thought to the suspension of a dream or a break from reality. Franco Albini designed this wooden chair for Vittorio Bonacina. Albini’s furniture mostly features a traditional Italian craftsmanship practice with minimal concepts...
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20th Century Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Rattan

Franco Albini Cicognino Wood Side Table by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Side table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Dubbed Cicognino, or “little stork”, this iconic design, is clean-cut and refi...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini Library “Poggi” Wood Metal Iron, 1955, Italy
By Franco Albini
Located in Milano, IT
Franco Albini Library “Poggi” wood metal iron, 1955, Italy.
Category

1950s Italian Other Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Italian Mid-Century Modern Bamboo and Rattan Bar / Serving Cart by Franco Albini
By Franco Albini
Located in New York, NY
Rare and important Italian Mid-Century Modern rattan and glass bar or serving cart by Franco Albini. The piece is unique in linking traditional materials (rattan, bamboo) with an ope...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Bamboo, Rattan

Franco Albini Table 840 Stadera Wood and Steel by Cassina
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Table designed by Franco Albini in 1954. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. This table/writing desk, designed by Franco Albini consists of two trapezoidal planes, one smaller than...
Category

2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Steel

Franco Albini 840 Stadera Wood and Steel Table for Cassina, Italy, new
By Franco Albini, Cassina
Located in Berlin, DE
The price given applies to the piece as shown in the first picture. Prices vary dependent on the model/finish of the table. Table designed by Franco Albini in 1954. Manufactured by...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Steel

Franco Albini Italian Midcentury Desk for Knoll 70's
By Franco Albini
Located in bari, IT
Stickers.Stunning Franco Albini '1928' desk for Knoll international, this example 1958. A pebbled glass top and stunning patina really take this piece...
Category

1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Steel

Rare Mahogany 'TL2' Cavalletto Table / Desk by Franco Albini for Poggi, Italy
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in London, GB
A rare mahogany version of the Cavaletto or TL2 table designed by the great neo-rationalist designer, Franco Albini. Designed in 1950 for manufacturers Poggi...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Steel

Franco Albini for Knoll Desk Model '1928' in Glass and Metal
By Knoll, Franco Albini
Located in Waalwijk, NL
Franco Albini for Knoll, desk model '1928', glass, wood, chromed steel, Italy, design 1949 Franco Albini’s '1928' desk combines glass, steel...
Category

1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Steel

Franco Albini TL30 Round Table in Metal and Wood for Poggi Pavia 1950s Italy
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Montecatini Terme, IT
Round table model TL30 with black lacquered metal base and a wooden top. Designed by Franco Albini for Poggi, Pavia in 1950s.   After spending his childhood and part of his youth in Robbiate in Brianza, where he was born in 1905, Franco Albini moved with his family to Milan. Here he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic and graduated in 1929. He starts his professional activity in the studio of Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia, with whom he collaborates for three years. He probably had his first international contacts here In those three years, the works carried out are admittedly of a twentieth-century imprint. It was the meeting with Edoardo Persico that marked a clear turning point towards rationalism and the rapprochement with the group of editors of “Casabella”. The new phase that that meeting provoked starts with the opening of the first professional studio in via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of architects began to deal with public housing by participating in the competition for the Baracca neighborhood in San Siro in 1932 and then creating the Ifacp neighborhoods: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D’Annunzio and Ettore Ponti (1939). Also in those years Albini worked on his first villa Pestarini. But it is above all in the context of the exhibitions that the Milanese master experiments his compromise between that “rigor and poetic fantasy” coining the elements that will be a recurring theme in all the declinations of his work – architecture, interiors, design pieces . The opening in 1933 of the new headquarters of the Triennale in Milan, in the Palazzo dell’Arte, becomes an important opportunity to express the strong innovative character of rationalist thought, a gym in which to freely experiment with new materials and new solutions, but above all a “method”. Together with Giancarlo Palanti, Albini on the occasion of the V Triennale di Milano sets up the steel structure house, for which he also designs the ‘furniture. At the subsequent Triennale of 1936, marked by the untimely death of Persico, together with a group of young designers gathered by Pagano in the previous edition of 1933, Franco Albini takes care of the preparation of the exhibition of the house, in which the furniture of three types of accommodation. The staging of Stanza per un uomo, at that same Triennale, allows us to understand the acute and ironic approach that is part of Albini, as a man and as a designer: the theme addressed is that of the existenzminimum and the reference of the project is to the fascist myth of the athletic and sporty man, but it is also a way to reflect on low-cost housing, the reduction of surfaces to a minimum and respect for the way of living. In that same year Albini and Romano designed the Ancient Italian Goldsmith’s Exhibition: vertical uprights, simple linear rods, design the space. A theme, that of the “flagpole”, which seems to be the center of the evolution of his production and creative process. The concept is reworked over time, with the technique of decomposition and recomposition typical of Albinian planning: in the setting up of the Scipio Exhibition and of contemporary drawings (1941) the tapered flagpoles, on which the paintings and display cases are hung, are supported by a grid of steel cables; in the Vanzetti stand (1942) they take on the V shape; in the Olivetti store in Paris (1956) the uprights in polished mahogany support the shelves for displaying typewriters and calculators. The reflection on this theme arises from the desire to interpret the architectural space, to read it through the use of a grid, to introduce the third dimension, the vertical one, while maintaining a sense of lightness and transparency. The flagpole is found, however, also in areas other than the exhibition ones. In the apartments he designed, it is used as a pivot on which the paintings can be suspended and rotated to allow different points of view, but at the same time as an element capable of dividing spaces. The Veliero bookcase...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

20th Century Franco Albini Table Model TL2 "Cavalletto" in Wood for Poggi 1950s
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Turin, Turin
Iconic table designed by the great Italian maestro Franco Albini in the 50s. The model is TL2 better known as "Cavalletto" (in english "Trestle") since it reminds of lightness and wi...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Italian Mid-Century Modern Bamboo & Rattan Bar Cart by Franco Albini
By Franco Albini
Located in New York, NY
Rare and important Italian Mid-Century Modern rattan and glass bar or serving cart by Franco Albini. The piece is unique in linking traditional materials (rattan, bamboo) with an ope...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Bamboo, Rattan, Glass

BADANO 1954 Round Dining Table by Franco Albini
By Franco Albini, Codiceicona
Located in Milan, IT
The 1954 Badano table, from a project by Franco Albini for private clients. The modular leg design allows the creation of a series of tables of different sizes.
Category

2010s Italian Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto Desk/Dining Table by Franco Albini for Poggi
By Franco Albini
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto desk/dining table by Franco Albini for Poggi, 1950s.
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

BADANO 1954 Oval Dining Table by Franco Albini
By Franco Albini, Codiceicona
Located in Milan, IT
The 1954 Badano table, from a project by Franco Albini for private clients. The modular leg design allows the creation of a series of tables of different sizes.
Category

2010s Italian Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Cavalletto Dining or Working Table by Franco Albini for Poggi
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Barcelona, ES
Cavalletto or TL2 dining or working table designed in 1950 by italian architect Franco Albini, old Poggi edition. Wood construction with beveled edges tabletop and crossed legs with ...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Franco Albini Cicognino Coffee Table in Teak Wood by Poggi Pavia 1970s Italy
By Poggi, Franco Albini
Located in Montecatini Terme, IT
Cicognino coffee table entirely made in teak wood designed by Franco Albini in 1952 and firstly produced by the Italian company, Poggi Pavia from the 1950s. The Cicognino coffee t...
Category

1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Teak

Franco Albini Mahogany mid-centry Italian Table Model TL-22 produced by Poggi
By Franco Albini
Located in Barcelona, ES
Franco Albini & Franca Helg. Dining table model no. TL22. Manufactured by Poggi, Italy, 1958. Mahogany. Measurements: 180.3 cm x 104.1 cm x 73 H cm. 70.98 in x 40.98 in x 28.74 in. Literature: Giuliana Gramigna, Repertorio 1950/1980, Milan, 1985, p. 123. Franco Albini, was born in 1905 and died in 1977. He spent his childhood and part of his youth in Robbiate in Brianza, where he was born. Albini, as an adolescent moved with his family to Milan. Here he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic and graduated in 1929. He started his professional activity in the studio of Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia, with whom he collaborated for three years. At the 1929 International Exhibition in Barcelona (where Gio Ponti curated the Italian pavilion and Mies van der Rohe realized that of Germany) and in Paris where, as Franca Helg recounted, he had the opportunity to visit the studio by Le Corbusier. In those three years, the works he carried out are admittedly of the twentieth century imprint. It is the meeting with Edoardo Persico that marked a clear turning point towards rationalism and the approach to the group of editors of "Casabella". The partly ironic and partly very harsh comments of the Neapolitan critic to a series of drawings, made by Albini for the design of some office furniture, caused him a great disturbance. “I spent days of real anguish - Albini recalls - I had to answer all the questions. I also had a fever, a large and long fever. " The meted provoked Albini to openen a professional studio in via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of architects began to deal with public housing by participating in the competition for the Baracca district in San Siro in 1932 and then building the IFACP neighborhoods: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D'Annunzio and Ettore Ponti (1939). During this period, Albini also worked on his first villa (Pestarini), which Giuseppe Pagano, architect and critic of the time, presented as follows: “This coherence, which the superficial rhetoric of fashionable jugglers calls intransigence, and which is instead the basis of understood between the fantasy of art and the reality of the craft, in Franco Albini, it is so rooted that it transforms theory into a moral attitude ". But it is above all in the context of the exhibitions that the Milanese master experienced his compromise between that "rigor and poetic fantasy" of which Pagano speaks, coining the elements that became a recurring theme in his . The opening in 1933 of the new Triennale headquarters in Milan, in the Palazzo dell'Arte, was an important opportunity to express the strong innovative character of rationalist thinking, a gym in which to freely experiment with new materials and new solutions, but above all a "method". "Cultivated as a communication laboratory, the art of setting up was for the rationalists of the first generation what the perspective had been for the architects of humanism: the field open to a hypothesis of space that needed profound reflections before landing the concreteness of the construction site ". Together with Giancarlo Palanti, Albini on the occasion of the V Triennale di Milano set up the steel structure house (with R. Camus, G. Mazzoleni, G. Minoletti and with the coordination of G. Pagano), for which he also designed the 'furniture. At the following Triennale of 1936, Persico dided, together with a group of young designers gathered by Pagano in the previous edition of 1933, Franco Albini took care of the preparations of the home exhibition. The setting up of Stanza per un uomo, at that same Triennale, allows us to understand the acute and ironic approach of Albini, as a man and as a designer: "Celebrating the beauty of mechanics was the imperative to which, for example, the surprising displays by Franco Albini who managed, in the subtle way of a refined and rarefied style, to sublimate their practical content in the metaphysics of daring still lifes: flying objects which marked in the void refined frames and metal intricacies the nodes of a fantastic cartography where industry finally became art free from purpose ". That same year Albini and Romano designed the exhibition of the Ancient Italian Goldsmithery: vertical uprights, simple linear rods, designed the space. A theme, of the "flagpole", seemed to be the center of the evolution of production and the creative process. The concept is reworked over time, with the technique of decomposition and recomposition typical of Albinian design: in the preparation of the Scipione Exhibition and contemporary drawings (1941) the tapered flagpoles, on which the paintings and display cases were hung, are supported by a grid of steel cables; in the Vanzetti stand (1942) they take the V-shape; in the Olivetti shop in Paris (1956) the polished mahogany uprights support the shelves for the display of typewriters and calculators. The flagpole is found, however, also in other areas. In the apartments he designed, it is used as a pivot on which the paintings can be suspended and rotated to allow different points of view, but at the same time as an element capable of dividing the spaces. The Veliero bookcase...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Mahogany

Oak Side Table by Franco Albini
By Franco Albini
Located in East Hampton, NY
Franco Albini, side table Model TN6 "Cicognino", Italy, 1952 Measures" Overall height: 31.5" Height to the tabletop: 16".
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wool

Writing Table by Franco Albini, Italy, 1950's
By Franco Albini
Located in New York, NY
Canted corners on rectangular surface with beveled edge, raised on crossed legs with H-form stretcher, and converging suspension rods of black enameled metal. Model TL2 for Poggi. Li...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Metal

Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto desk/dining table by Franco Albini for Poggi
By Franco Albini
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto desk/dining table by Franco Albini for Poggi, 1950s
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Franco Albini Tables

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini tables for sale on 1stDibs.

Franco Albini tables are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of wood and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Franco Albini tables, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. We have 37 vintage editions of these items in-stock, while there is 16 modern edition to choose from as well. Many of the original tables by Franco Albini were created in the mid-century modern style in italy during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider tables by Vittorio Dassi, Mario Bellini, and Saporiti Italia. Prices for Franco Albini tables can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $1,331 and can go as high as $30,037, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $6,800.

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