Carlo Ratti a rare bent plywood swivel armchair, Italian circa 1950's

A Mid-Century Italian Chair, floral upholstery, circa 1950's. Sculptural, elegant and comfortable. Please note, only one single chair is still available,

1950's Italian Armchair and matching stool

A beautiful and quirky set of 4 comfortable, elegant and unusual bentwood dining or side chairs, probably from the 1960's or 70's. The fabric is old but there are no tears. They are ...

A Mid-Century Slatted Folding Scissor Lounge Chair, Modernist.

A simple but rare and classic set from postwar Italian craftsmanship, this set of six chairs features a structure of wood and curved plywood, combined in a play of lines that lighten...

Four dining chairs designed in 1950s by Carlo Ratti and produced by Industria Legni Curvati, Italy. Plywood seat with black lacquered metal frame. Signed.

Six Chairs by Carlo Ratti, Made in Italy, 1950.  Original in both structure and fabric. The frame is beech veneer wood, faux leather cover with ci patterned red/black color. The fram...

Set of four dining chairs with a frame in black lacquered metal and seat in curved plywood, attributed to Carlo Ratti and produced by Società Compensati Curvati in the 1950s. In Italy, at the beginning of the XX century, industries of curved solid wood arose under license of Michael Thonet, and through the International Exhibitions the processing of curved wood became more and more widespread. The Expo of the first decade was also attended by the wood manufacturers of Monza, while in 1905 Otto Helzer, in Switzerland, patented wooden structures in curved laminated, whose strength was equivalent to those in steel. The Ratti brothers of Monza took their cue from the solid wood laminate to create furniture that, instead of wooden elements, used sheets of wood. The brothers Ratti, Carlo and Mario, also began to follow the young artistic avant-gardes (cubism, futurism and abstractionism). The mastery of wooden sculpture influenced Carlo in the design and realization of furniture of fine neo-plastic artistic workmanship and decò, receiving honors from the Prince of Piedmont Umberto di Savoia. In 1919, in Milan, the first Lombard Exhibition of Decorative Arts was set up (later to become the Triennale) and the Ratti brothers exhibited their furniture in solid wood but also in curved panel with a new system of curvature, the one in Telo. The canvas system was developed by the Ratti brothers with the help of a friend, Cesare Cantù. They developed an elastomer bag in which the mould was inserted with the panel to be bent and, closing it with clamps, the air inside was removed, thus making the panel adhere to the mould. Carlo and Mario found in the Telo system a means by which they could make objects and furniture in the three spatial directions with large surface curvatures, without limits of thickness and minimum radii of curvature. In 1921 in Stuttgart the first Salone del Mobile was inaugurated and the Fratelli Ratti of Monza made itself known internationally by presenting solid wood furniture and also furniture in load-bearing plywood, flanked by furniture with framed and interchangeable covers. The Expo became meeting places to verify and present the novelties in the furniture and industrialization sector and, with the development of Industrial Design, the first architects joined in the design of the furniture industries. The Ratti Brothers, in the various international and national exhibitions, also presented incredible objects in their realization with the system in Telo. After 1930 Carlo and Mario produced many containers for radio and folding chairs for cinema but in 1939 they divided and in Monza Mario remained who, with his sons Antonio and Angela, formed the Società Compensati Curvi...