Pier Luigi Colli Mid Century Sideboard with Relief Carvings

A mid century Italian sideboard in warm blonde pine wood. A trestle style base supports the upper cabinet featuring inner shelving. Diamond front doors with keyed locks. Key included...

A mid century Italian sideboard cabinet by Gianfranco Frattini for Bernini. Model “807,” this pieces features 8 drawers, blonde w...

A mid century Italian sideboard cabinet by Gianfranco Frattini for Bernini. Model “806,” this pieces features two glass doors and...

A mid century Italian sofa. Low profile and wingback style silhouette. Newly reupholstered in a red and cream ikat checkered jacquard. Sourced outside of Florence, Italy. Matching si...

A mid century "scavo" glass lamp. The scavo technique leaves the glass surface feeling rough and weathered. The lavender glass has a powdery white surface patina. Amphora silhouette....

A mid century table lamp constructed of cork with a glass shade. Cube form silhouette. Upper glass simply rests over the lightbulb onto cork base.

Mid-Century Italian Sideboard by Pier Luigi Colli, Ash Wood, 1940s

Elegant sideboard in ash and mahogany with magnificent legs that come out from the base. The same furniture is available the table, eight chairs, and the unique cabinet bar. Wanting ...

This Large Sideboard by Pier Luigi Colli is an exquisite and iconic piece of furniture that exemplifies the craftsmanship and design aesthetics of the mid-20th century. Pier Luigi Co...

Large sideboard is entirely realized in oak wood, with four drawers on each side (for a total of eight drawers) and a central storage unit. Designed by Pier Luigi Colli Italian Manufacture from 1938 ca. To reconstruct the story of Pier Luigi Colli, we must take a leap back to the 19th century in Turin, a multifaceted city, in some ways controversial due to its austere and sometimes introverted character, but at the core of a creative drive: and if it is primarily known for its automobile industry, there was a time when Turin was at the height of fame also in the field of furniture and embroidery, thanks to the presence of two entrepreneurial realities. On the one hand there was the MIRAM (Italian Hand-Made Embroidery Manufacture) founded by Pietro Colli in 1850, specializing in gobelin fabrics and bandera embroideries. His daughter Teresa traveled between Italy and Paris to discover the latest trends in fabrics and embroidery, while her younger brother, Pier Luigi Colli (1895-1968), the star of this story, joined the company in 1921. Distinguishing himself for his enterprising personality and willing to continue his father's profession, Pier Luigi was known to his contemporaries as "the artist interior designer", and had no doubts about his future: he moved temporarily to Paris, where he attended L'Ecole des Beaux Arts Décoratives. The other great Turin manufacturer to be mentioned is Martinotti, founded in 1931 by Giuseppe Martinotti and supplier of fine furnishings for the Savoy court, pieces which were characterized by a typically 19th century eclectic style, generally made of exotic woods featuring ivory and tortoiseshell inlays: at that time, Martinotti represented the top of internationality, having even participated in the 1875 Philadelphia exhibition! The two brands' fate merged in 1902, a decisive year for Turin which, hosting the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art, became the cradle of the spread of the Liberty style in Italy. In the exhibition, Martinotti exhibited an elegant interior, in which all the textile parts, from the curtains to the seat upholstery, was made by Colli. It was in 1926 that Colli (MIRAM) finally acquired Martinotti, founding a laboratory where, from the savoir faire of the two companies, complete pieces of furniture were created and tailor-made for the customer, from the structure to its upholstery. Meanwhile, Pier Luigi Colli was living in Paris, the ideal place to be in 1925, when the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts brought him closer to the work of one of his putative fathers, the great French cabinet maker Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann (Paris, 1879 - 1933). Thanks to Paris, Pier Luigi intertwined contacts with the international beau monde, he started to import Lalique glass from France, while the Colli's clientele expanded and special commissions arrived, such as the creation of the Royal Train of the Savoy family made with Fiat, or the lecture hall in the University of Turin. The success of a brand is also measured by its openness to establishing collaborations with the great designers of its time, in the case of Colli resulting in important creative partnerships: from Gio Ponti, who relied on the brand for his Richard Ginori project in Rome, up to Carlo Mollino, who created with Colli the handrails of the RAI (national TV) auditorium and the windows of the Teatro Regio in Turin; also in Turin, the Morbelli architects collaborated with Colli for the furnishings of the RAI skyscraper, and the architects Gabetti Isola for the interiors of the Stock Exchange in Turin. In the 40s and 50s, having opened a branch in Rome, Colli was at the peak of productivity. The embroidery and textile section continued to be one of its strengths, keeping alive the relations with France and its great masters: among the inspirations were the geometric shapes of the fabrics of Ruhlmann's interiors, or the tactile carpets made by designer Mariod Dorn. And so, another Colli trademark become the "textured carpet...

Large Italian wooden sideboard by Pier Luigi Colli with four doors, 1940s.

Italian midcentury (1950s) sideboard with a burled birch veneer, having two exterior cabinet doors with ribbon design brass door pulls and a scalloped carved edge, centering three dr...