Gio Ponti Monumental Desk and Chair Set in Reeded Mahogany, Brass, Italy 1950s
View Similar Items
Gio Ponti Monumental Desk and Chair Set in Reeded Mahogany, Brass, Italy 1950s
About the Item
- Creator:Gio Ponti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 31.5 in (80.01 cm)Width: 75 in (190.5 cm)Depth: 35.5 in (90.17 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 3
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Polished and restored.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU3576314969471
Gio Ponti
An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.
Ponti designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, mirrors 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.
Ponti's 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, which was 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.
Find a range of vintage Gio Ponti desks, dining chairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Gio Ponti: Monumental Executive Desk in Reeded Walnut and Brass, Italy 1950sBy Gio PontiLocated in New York, NYGio Ponti (1891-1979) A rare and important executive desk by Gio Ponti, in dramatically carved and reeded walnut with polished brass details. Impeccably crafted, starkly geometric i...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks
MaterialsBrass
- Carlo di Carli: Desk in Fruitwood, Brass, and Glass, Italy 1950sBy Carlo De CarliLocated in New York, NYCarlo de Carli (1910 - 1999) An important sculptural desk with six drawers by seminal Milanese architect and theorist Carlo de Carli, in fruitwood with polished brass handles and s...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Giuseppe Pagano: Eight Drawer Desk in Fruitwood and Brass, Italy 1940By Giuseppe Pagano PogatschnigLocated in New York, NYGiuseppe Pagano (1896 - 1945) An imposing eight-drawer desk by rationalist architect and designer Giuseppe Pagano, in fruitwood with mahogany-stained trim and polished brass hand...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks
MaterialsBrass
$15,600 Sale Price20% Off - Gio Ponti: Cabinet in Mahogany, Glass, Skai, Italy 1950sBy Gio PontiLocated in New York, NYGio Ponti (1891 - 1979) An exceptional and rare asymmetrical credenza by modernist master Gio Ponti, in mahogany with five drawers angled subtly outwards, a glass writing desk, pol...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
MaterialsBrass
$26,000 Sale Price20% Off - Rare Stunning Atomic Age Boomerang Desk and Gemini Leather Armchair, France 1970Located in New York, NYFrance, 1970's A phenomenal Space Age boomerang desk. A beautifully elongated and angled Formica top cantilevers over a steel column with a spring-loaded compartmentalized drawer, raised on a cast iron base sheathed in original red shag carpeting. Accompanied by a sleek Gemini armchair...Category
Vintage 1970s French Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsSteel
- Pierre Jeanneret: X Leg Chandigarh Desk, France/ India c. 1960By Pierre JeanneretLocated in New York, NYPierre Jeanneret (1896-1967) A rare and spectacular four-drawer bureau in teak by Pierre Jeanneret for the civic buildings in Chandigarh, India, designed by Le Corbusier. A stunning...Category
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Desks
MaterialsAluminum
- Gio Ponti DeskBy Gio PontiLocated in New York, NYGio Ponti custom eight-drawer desk. From a small edition created for administrative offices in Forli, Italy. Blonde wood desk with red linoleum top,...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsWood
$26,000 - Italian Desk by Gio Ponti Attributed, 1950sBy Gio PontiLocated in Palermo, PAItalian desk by Gio Ponti attributed, 1950s. Dimensions: H= 78 cm; W= 180 cm; D= 85 cm.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsGlass, Wood
On Hold$3,078 - Harvey Probber Desk in Mahogany 1950s 'Signed'By Harvey ProbberLocated in New York, NYDesk in mahogany with alternating grain top and brass sabots by Harvey Probber, American, 1950s (label in drawer reads "designed by Harvey Probber"). This desk is beautifully made.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Desks
MaterialsBrass
- Italian Gio Ponti Mahogany Table DeskBy Gio PontiLocated in New York, NYItalian 1930s mahogany table desk with geometric form legs with brass sabot feet and a single drawer with a stretcher (GIO PONTI - for the University of Padua)Category
Early 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Gio Ponti “Stile” Desk Wood Brass, 1950, ItalyBy Gio PontiLocated in Milano, ITGio Ponti “Stile” desk wood brass, 1950, Italy.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Other Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsWood
- Gio Ponti “Stile” Desk Wood Brass, 1950, ItalyBy Gio PontiLocated in Milano, ITGio Ponti “Stile” desk wood brass, 1950, Italy.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Other Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsBrass
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Barnaba Fornasetti’s Hallucinatory House Has His Father’s Spirit
Behind a nondescript facade in northeastern Milan is the magical residence of Barnaba Fornasetti. It's a shrine to the style developed by his design-legend father, which still defies categorization.
Billy Cotton Layers His Interiors with Lived-In Comfort
The Brooklyn-based designer is adept at styles ranging from austere to over-the-top, espousing an architectural, detail-oriented approach also evident in his line of furniture and lighting.