Ico Parisi for Brugnoli Mobili Freestanding Desk in Walnut and Brass

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About the Item

Ico Parisi for Brugnoli Mobili, desk, walnut, teak veneer, brass, vinyl, Italy, 1959 Acknowledged master of Italian mid-century design Ico Parisi has created an impressive number of designs throughout his career. His design language is characterized by expressive, lines and grained wood, reflecting his excellent taste for form and harmonic compositions. This sturdily desk is a wonderful example of the versatility of Parisi's work, showing a clear transformation in comparison to previous delicate designs of the early 1950s. A rectangular tabletop with vinyl surface rests on a base with two compartments of drawers. Very striking to the eye are the 45-degree beveled corners executed in teak veneer. The symmetric composition is resting in an honest frame which is visible throughout the desk. Clear lines with self-locking wood joints show an honest construction, having a strong visual impact on the design itself. Unique to this well-documented desk, of which few versions are known such as the single drawer desk, are the two drawers with an open shelf on top provide storage space. Long, horizontal handles in patinated brass strengthen the design and provide a bold accent. The warm colored walnut wood with its natural grain combines wonderfully with the brass handles and the dark vinyl tabletop. Ico Parisi (1916-1996) is one of the pioneers who helped shape postwar Italian design. Parisi is now known for fluent, curved, and delicate simplified modern design. In Italy, reform took place not in a new institute such as the Bauhaus, but in the sophisticated upper-class private spaces. Here paths crossed of Ponti, Campigli, Melotti and Ico and his wife Luisa. At the age of twenty Parisi graduates from the Istituto Tecnico G. Castellini as an Industrial Head Technician. According to Parisi himself, his first design dates from this time. He also starts to work as a painter and photographer before he had to work as a soldier in the war. His life really starts after the war when he meets his wife, Luisa Aiani. From here onwards, his designs are recognized and exhibited, and he starts to collaborate with MIM Roma in 1958 and Stildomus in 1959.

Creator:
Brugnoli Mobili Cantú (Manufacturer),Ico Parisi (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 28.35 in (72 cm)Width: 72.84 in (185 cm)Depth: 31.5 in (80 cm)
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass,Teak,Walnut
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1950-1959
Date of Manufacture:
1959
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Every item Morentz offers is checked by our team of 30 craftsmen in our in-house workshop. Special restoration or reupholstery requests can be done. We guarantee a very high quality standard, ask our design specialists for detailed information.
Seller Location:
Waalwijk, NL
Reference Number:
Seller: 501108041stDibs: LU933126459532

Shop All Ico Parisi

Ico Parisi

Domenico “Ico” Parisi was one half of a prolific postwar design duo he comprised with his wife, Luisa. Their furniture designs are known for running the stylistic gamut, with celebrated mid-century modern pieces ranging from elegantly skeletal — like dramatic ebonized dining chairs — to plush and shapely, like the iconic 1951 Egg chair, in a plethora of materials.

The son of an art teacher father, Ico Parisi was exposed to art at an early age. Born in 1916 in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, he and his family moved to Como in 1925. There, the young Parisi would begin to develop his interest in architecture and design. After earning a degree as a building inspector in 1936 and working as a civil engineer, Parisi took on an apprenticeship in the studio of Giuseppe Terragni, the modernist, fascist Italian architect, pioneer of the Rationalist movement and creator of the iconic Casa del Fascio.

While working for Terragni, Parisi crossed paths with such contemporary design talents as Lucio Fontana, Bruno Munari and Pietro Lingeri, though he briefly moved away from design and architecture to explore photography and film. His artistic work would soon be interrupted, however, by the outbreak of World War II, during which he served at the front before returning to Como in 1943. There, he resumed work as a designer and architect, founding two architecture groups: the Alta Quota and the Gruppo Como.

Through his creative circles, Parisi met Luisa Aiani, a former student of the prolific architect and furniture designer Gio Ponti, who was affiliated with the Alta Quota. They married in 1947 and founded the studio La Ruota — a cross between a design firm and an intellectual salon — in Como shortly thereafter. In 1950, Parisi finally completed his architectural schooling, studying under the nationalist architect Alberto Sartoris at the Athenaeum Architecture School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He and Aiani began several decades of sophisticated output, designing curved sofas upholstered in yellow velvet and armchairs with slender mahogany frames for enduring Italian manufacturers such as Cassina and others.

Much like Charles and Ray Eames in America, the Parisis worked as a team and relied on experimentation in style and material for many of their designs. Ico Parisi died in Como in 1996.

Find a collection of vintage Ico Parisi coffee tables, dining chairs and more on 1stDibs.