Midcentury bookcases by Angelo Mangiarotti for Poltronova, Italy 1965

Italian architect, designer, teacher and urban planner Angelo Mangiarotti was a leading light in the international design community from the 1960s onward. While he was an adherent of the rationalist principles of purity of line and simplicity of construction, he sought to imbue his designs for coffee tables, dining chairs, sconces and other furnishings with a sense of character and lightness of spirit that was often lacking in late-20th-century modernist architecture and design. 

Born in Milan, Mangiarotti studied architecture at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1948. Five years later, he won a visiting professorship at the Illinois Institute of Technology — beginning a peripatetic academic career that would see him teaching in numerous Italian institutions as well as in schools as far afield as Hawaii and Australia. He worked with Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and met such greats as Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius. He returned to Italy in 1955 and would go on to work on numerous industrial, residential, commercial and civic projects in his home country, most notably a group of six railway stations in Milan.

As a designer, Mangiarotti and the development of his career embodies the evolution of modernism in the latter decades of the 20th century. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, after early experiments in plywood furniture and one-piece foam-core seating — including the 1110 lounge chair for Cassina — Mangiarotti began to design using more classic materials, from delicate, curvaceous blown-glass table lamps for Artemide to chandeliers with crystal links for Vistosi.

In 1971, Mangiarotti introduced what became his signature designs: a series of tables in marble and other stones that featured “gravity joints,” their legs held in place by the weight of the tabletop. Tables in his Eros collection have muscular proportions that anticipate the robust, overscaled lines of postmodern works that would appear 10 years later: His Eccentrico table, for example, is a striking assemblage in marble featuring a top that is cantilevered dramatically on a canted columnar base. 

But simplicity and practicality were consistently the primary watchwords of Mangiarotti’s designs. The purity and elegance of the objects he created offer a graceful counterpoint to a traditional decor, yet they have a singular sculptural presence that allows them to stand out powerfully in a modern interior.

Find vintage Angelo Mangiarotti furniture on 1stDibs.

Poltronova is known for embracing the creativity that opposites can introduce to a space. Its radical modernist furniture and lighting fixtures are simultaneously grounded in classic aesthetics and inspired by what were then new and provocative artistic movements in mid-century Italy, when the company was founded. This tension resulted in unique and extraordinary pieces at the manufacturer, from eccentric, glove-shaped armchairs to striking dining tables that feature a mix of materials and textures.

Italian designer Sergio Cammilli founded Poltronova in Tuscany in 1957. That same year, it won the Compasso d’Oro for the Panchetto chair designed by Luciano Nustrini. Revolutionary Italian architect Ettore Sottsass — a maestro of postmodern design who would later establish the Memphis Group — came on board as an art director in 1958. Poltronova manufactured many of his furniture and ceramic designs. Sottsass’s lighting, seating and other works for Poltronova showcase the designer’s bold experimentation with solid wood, glass, metal and laminate materials.

Other established names in Italian furniture design collaborated with Poltronova’s Sottsass and Cammilli, including Giovanni Michelucci, Gae Aulenti and Angelo Mangiarotti. However, the company truly set itself apart in its collaborations with Superstudio and Archizoom Associati, groups that were part of an irreverent, avant-garde movement in art and design that took shape during the 1960s in Florence, Turin and Milan. Collectives associated with the movement — which would one day be called Italian Radical design — drew on Pop art and minimalism and explored working with unconventional materials to create colorful, quirky and uniquely shaped objects and furnishings. At the time, Poltronova also worked with up-and-coming names in the art world, like painter Max Ernst and sculptor Mario Ceroli.

Poltronova showcased its groundbreaking designs in many exhibitions, such as “La Casa Abitata,” which was held in Florence in 1965. At Milan's Eurodomus trade show in 1970, Poltronova debuted an entire bedroom collection designed by Sottsass — including his sensuous Ultrafragola mirror. The brand’s furnishings were included in a 1972 exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art called "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape," and in 1977, Poltronova again won the Compasso d’Oro for a book called Fare Mobili con Poltronova (Making Furniture with Poltronova).

Poltronova's enduring and acclaimed furniture designs came to be loved far outside Italy. During the 1960s, importer Charles Stendig represented the company and helped introduce it to the American market.

In 2005, Poltronova established the Centro Studi Poltronova to recreate some of the company's iconic furniture. The brand has also recently collaborated with English architect Nigel Coates, who worked with a Poltronova master craftsman in Italy to design a series of limited-edition furniture in 2011, including the Domo chair.

On 1stDibs, find vintage Poltronova tables, seating, storage cabinets and more.