Franco Albini Cicognino Coffee Table in Teak Wood by Poggi Pavia 1970s Italy

TL30 table with a round top in wood and a base in black lacquered metal, designed by Franco Albini and produced by Poggi in the 1950s. After spending his childhood and part of his youth in Robbiate in Brianza, where he was born in 1905, Franco Albini moved with his family to Milan. Here he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic and graduated in 1929. He starts his professional activity in the studio of Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia, with whom he collaborates for three years. He probably had his first international contacts here In those three years, the works carried out are admittedly of a twentieth-century imprint. It was the meeting with Edoardo Persico that marked a clear turning point towards rationalism and the rapprochement with the group of editors of “Casabella”. The new phase that that meeting provoked starts with the opening of the first professional studio in via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of architects began to deal with public housing by participating in the competition for the Baracca neighborhood in San Siro in 1932 and then creating the Ifacp neighborhoods: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D’Annunzio and Ettore Ponti (1939). Also in those years Albini worked on his first villa Pestarini. But it is above all in the context of the exhibitions that the Milanese master experiments his compromise between that “rigor and poetic fantasy” coining the elements that will be a recurring theme in all the declinations of his work – architecture, interiors, design pieces . The opening in 1933 of the new headquarters of the Triennale in Milan, in the Palazzo dell’Arte, becomes an important opportunity to express the strong innovative character of rationalist thought, a gym in which to freely experiment with new materials and new solutions, but above all a “method”. Together with Giancarlo Palanti, Albini on the occasion of the V Triennale di Milano sets up the steel structure house, for which he also designs the ‘furniture. At the subsequent Triennale of 1936, marked by the untimely death of Persico, together with a group of young designers gathered by Pagano in the previous edition of 1933, Franco Albini takes care of the preparation of the exhibition of the house, in which the furniture of three types of accommodation. The staging of Stanza per un uomo, at that same Triennale, allows us to understand the acute and ironic approach that is part of Albini, as a man and as a designer: the theme addressed is that of the existenzminimum and the reference of the project is to the fascist myth of the athletic and sporty man, but it is also a way to reflect on low-cost housing, the reduction of surfaces to a minimum and respect for the way of living. In that same year Albini and Romano designed the Ancient Italian Goldsmith’s Exhibition: vertical uprights, simple linear rods, design the space. A theme, that of the “flagpole”, which seems to be the center of the evolution of his production and creative process. The concept is reworked over time, with the technique of decomposition and recomposition typical of Albinian planning: in the setting up of the Scipio Exhibition and of contemporary drawings (1941) the tapered flagpoles, on which the paintings and display cases are hung, are supported by a grid of steel cables; in the Vanzetti stand (1942) they take on the V shape; in the Olivetti store in Paris (1956) the uprights in polished mahogany support the shelves for displaying typewriters and calculators. The reflection on this theme arises from the desire to interpret the architectural space, to read it through the use of a grid, to introduce the third dimension, the vertical one, while maintaining a sense of lightness and transparency. The flagpole is found, however, also in areas other than the exhibition ones. In the apartments he designed, it is used as a pivot on which the paintings can be suspended and rotated to allow different points of view, but at the same time as an element capable of dividing spaces. The Veliero bookcase...

Extendable Chelsea dining table with a square tabletop and a pyramidal base entirely made in walnut wood and metal details. It was designed by Vittorio Introini and produced by S...

La Rotonda round-shaped table in walnut wood, designed by Mario Bellini in 1976 and produced by Cassina. La Rotonda table is an exquisite fusion of ...

Round table model La Rosa dei Venti, part of the Mobili nella Valle series, it's entirely realized in pinewood, with inlays on table-top, it was designed by Mario Ceroli and produced by Poltronova in the 1970s. The beautiful inlays on the table top represent a compass rose, it's a figure that can be found on a compass, map, nautical chart, or also a monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their intermediate points. Rosa dei Venti is a masterpiece of Ceroli and it's very precious to the artist to its intrinsic meaning, directly connected with the cardinal points and our planet. Behind the homage to this element lurks the desire of Ceroli to reconcile the majesty of the wood with the limitless of the sea. Manufacturer's brand marked with fire on the table structure. Literature: Giuliana Gramigna, "Repertorio del Design Italiano 1950-2000", Allemandi, 2011, p. 214.   Mario Ceroli (1938) is one of the most influential artists of the Italian post-war period. Ceroli graduated from 'Accademia delle Belle Arti' in Rome, where he studied with Leoncillo, Fazzini and Colla. In the early stages of Ceroli's career he concentrated on ceramics and in 1958, he exhibited these works at the Premium Spoleto. In the same year Ceroli held his first solo exhibition at Galeria San Sebastinello of Rome. During 1959 he began to experiment with new materials, particularly with raw wood, such as Russian pinewood. He used these materials to create silhouetted shapes in his furniture and objects that related simplistically to the surrounding space. Ceroli relates back to the traditional medieval craftsmen, focusing on an overall and overwhelming attraction that holds a dialogue with the spectator. Between 1967-1968, Ceroli took part in exhibitions related to the "Arte de Povera" group. He had also been involved as screenplay director collaborating with "II Teatro Stabile" in Turin and with "La Scala" In Milan. Characteristically Ceroli's designs are dramatic and sculptural, with exaggerated forms and bold lines and often paying tribute to historical artworks. One of Ceroli's major works was his 'Mobili nella Valle' series, inspired directly by De Chirico's 1927 painting...

This exquisite Cicognino side table, designed by Franco Albini and produced by Poggi Pavia in the 1970s, is a timeless piece of Italian design. Crafted from high-quality wood, this t...

Italian midcentury wood side table model TN6 Cicognino designed by Franco Albini and produced by Poggi Pavia in 1953, production Italy 1960s Bibliography: Domus 312 (November 1955),...

Prices vary dependent on the material of the table. Available in Canaletto Walnut, Natural Ash, Black Stained Ash or Amaranth stained ash. Side table designed by Franco Albini in 1...

Side table designed by Franco Albini in 1953. Relaunched in 2008. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Dubbed Cicognino, or “little stork”, this iconic design, is clean-cut and refined...