Pair of Vintage Fireside Ladderback Chairs by Gio Ponti for Casa e Giardino

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Pair of Vintage Fireside Ladderback Chairs by Gio Ponti for Casa e Giardino

About the Item

Handsome pair of Italian fireside ladderback chairs designed by Gio Ponti for Casa e Giardino. They are in fabulous original condition with a lovely age patina to the wood and the rush seats. No outstanding flaws. Three of the plugs which cover screws on the backs were missing and replacements were made to match the original. Please see photos, circa 1939 Holy cow! These are awesome chairs! An absolute piece of sculptural art! They are the epitome of Classic Italian Mid-Century Modern design. Called the fireside ladderback chair and designed in 1939 by Gio Ponti for Casa e Giardino. We do not know the exact date this pair were made but most likely not after the 1950s. They are comprised of a gorgeous solid walnut frame and woven rush seat. The seat is exceptionally low and the ladderback is remarkably high. These iconic chairs are made up of two separate entities, a seat and a back, that are connected to form the complete chair. The seat portion consists of four simple legs with a taper at their bottom and a softly rounded top which are held together by turned and tapered foot rails in alternating heights on the legs, and four top rails that not only hold the legs in place, but serve as the woven rush seat’s frame. Without the back attached this would be a marvelous stool on its own. The back is made of two round side rails which flare outward from bottom to top and have an angled cut to both bottoms and tops. They are connected by five graduating horizontal slats which have a lovely heart shaped curve to their upper edge. The back is then attached to the seat. Simply amazing! Do not worry about your design style, these go with anything. Classic. Lovely. Iconic. Giovanni “Gio” Ponti 1891-1979 was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer, and publisher who was interested in the arts from early childhood and excelled at painting with a career that spanned six decades. He became an architect in 1921 which was after the war had intervened and his education had been postponed. By the 1950s he had gained international fame with the design of the Pirelli Tower in Milan. During his career he designed more than 100 buildings in Italy and the world. He founded, in 1928, and directed almost all his life the magazine Domus which contributed largely to the Italian-style art of living. He taught at the Milan Polytechnic School from 1936-1961 training several generations of designers. And he contributed to the creation of one of the most important design awards: the Compasso d’Oro prize. In 1946 Ponti designed several series for Venini, becoming their first designer after WWII. His furniture and accessories designs are prized and sought after throughout the world. I am totally in love with these chairs. You should be too. You better hurry to make them yours! Measures: Chair • Height 40.5 inches • Width 17 inches • Depth 18 inches • Seat height 11.5 inches • Inside seat width 12.5 inches • Inside seat depth 16 inches • Inside back height 29.5 inches • Outside back height 38 inches • Weight 93 pounds each Boxed size: • Height 48 inches • Width 23 inches • Depth 26 inches • Weight 40 pounds.

Creator:
Casa e Giardino (Maker),Gio Ponti (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 40.5 in (102.87 cm)Width: 17 in (43.18 cm)Depth: 18 in (45.72 cm)Seat Height: 11.5 in (29.21 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 2
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Rush,Walnut
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1939
Condition:
Replacements made: Three of the plugs which cover screws on the backs were missing and replacements were made to match the original. These were made by our experienced staff. Wear consistent with age and use. They are in fabulous original condition with a lovely age patina to the wood and the rush seats. No outstanding flaws. Three of the plugs which cover screws on the backs were missing and replacements were made to match the original. Please see photos.
Seller Location:
Topeka, KS
Reference Number:
Seller: 414-SEA-3141stDibs: LU1873319935322

Shop All Gio Ponti

Gio Ponti

An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.

Ponti (1891–1979) designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, lamps and chairs to ceramics and coffeemakers — and his buildings, including the brawny Pirelli Tower (1956) in his native Milan, and the castle-like Denver Art Museum (1971), were erected in 14 countries. Through Domus, the magazine he founded in 1928, Ponti brought attention to virtually every significant movement and creator in the spheres of modern art and design.

The questing intelligence Ponti brought to Domus is reflected in his work: as protean as he was prolific, Ponti’s style can’t be pegged to a specific genre. In the 1920s, as artistic director for the Tuscan porcelain maker Richard Ginori, he fused old and new; his ceramic forms were modern, but decorated with motifs from Roman antiquity. In pre-war Italy, modernist design was encouraged, and after the conflict, Ponti — along with designers such as Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso — found a receptive audience for their novel, idiosyncratic work. Ponti’s typical furniture forms from the period, such as the wedge-shaped Distex chair, are simple, gently angular, and colorful; equally elegant and functional. In the 1960s and ’70s, Ponti’s style evolved again as he explored biomorphic shapes, and embraced the expressive, experimental designs of Ettore Sottsass Jr., Joe Colombo and others.

His signature furniture piece — the one by which he is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Germany’s Vitra Design Museum and elsewhere — is the sleek Superleggera chair, produced by Cassina starting in 1957. (The name translates as “superlightweight” — advertisements featured a model lifting it with one finger.) Ponti had a playful side, best shown in a collaboration he began in the late 1940s with the graphic artist Piero Fornasetti. Ponti furnishings were decorated with bright finishes and Fornasetti's whimsical lithographic transfer prints of things such as butterflies, birds or flowers; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts possesses a 1950 secretary from their Architetturra series, which feature case pieces covered in images of building interiors and facades. The grandest project Ponti and Fornasetti undertook, however, lies on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean: the interiors of the luxury liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.

Widely praised retrospectives at the Queens Museum of Art in 2001 and at the Design Museum London in 2002 sparked a renewed interest in Ponti among modern design aficionados. (Marco Romanelli’s monograph written for the London show, offers a fine overview of Ponti’s work.) Today, a wide array of Ponti’s designs are snapped up by savvy collectors who want to give their homes a touch of Italian panache and effortless chic.

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