Set of 2 'Pirellone' Rosewood Direction Tables by Gio Ponti for RIMA Italy, 1958

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Set of 2 'Pirellone' Rosewood Direction Tables by Gio Ponti for RIMA Italy, 1958

About the Item

(The price depicted is for both the tables together) Here is an extraordinarily set with fantastic provenance: two important 'Pirellone' Direction Tables by Gio Ponti and Alberto Roselli for Rima Padova especially designed for the Pirelli Tower in Milan, the first skyscraper of Italy. Not so many were made of these magnificent large rosewood tables because they were only meant for the direction meeting-rooms and conference-rooms in the Pirelli Tower, so we are very proud to have a set two of these luxurious and limited pieces available now in the gallery! These tables can give your meeting or conference room the allure and grandeur that your business ánd your clients deserve. There is a lot to find on the internet on the Pirelli building. Especially the Pirelli Foundation has some interesting articles in the interior and the exterior of the building, both designed by Gio Ponti and others in which these specific conference tables can be witnessed as well. From the same Pirelli Foundation: “One interesting feature in the history of the tower is that of its interior design. The work of Gio Ponti, who designed it “in relation to and in continuity with the architecture”, as we read in issue 71 of Edilizia Moderna devoted to the Pirelli headquarters in September 1960, the design gave a stylistic identity to all the premises and to all the furnishings, from the walls and floors, all clad in Pirelli rubber and linoleum, to the doors, through to the lifts, clocks, lamps and other lighting equipment, in the “democatic” belief that all the “inhabitants” of the building, from the company chairman to the office clerks, should live in the same spaces. Colour, which was particularly important for Ponti – as he himself says in “Everything in the World Must Be Brightly Coloured”, an article he wrote for Pirelli magazine in 1952 – was used as a “means of correcting the monotony and anonymity of the spaces” in the doors, which were clad in red linoleum, and on the floors, in yellow and black linoleum. Gio Ponti and Alberto Rosselli also chose the furniture: the desks were those Ponti had designed in 1955 for the Rima company, with metal frames and wooden or linoleum tops” The tables are executed in rosewood and metal and the in form they follow the form of the building if you would look from above: ovally shaped but not rounded but straight. What also makes these tables very special is that the materials that were used: Rosewood, the most luxurious and highly protected of all hardwoods ánd metal. For that time the use of metal was very progressive because most furniture was manufactured in wood till then, but now Gio Ponti used metal instead to hold for the heavy top. Together with the industrial revolutions this was a logical step but Gio Ponti was the first one to integrate metal in furniture like this, creating the possiblity to keep its shape very minimal, because metal is strong, and to bring the focus on the beautiful slim and slender top. The rosewood is very much present with its dark flames, still very distinct because these tables have hardly any discolouration by sunlight. They are still very nicely dark with chromed metal legs and a metal ridge around the table that protects the table against the chairs banging in to them. Both of the tops are in very very good condition! The base shows traces of use but can be rechromed if you want. Extra pictures on request. The large meeting room tables recalled the ground plan of the “rice grain” building. The upholstered seats, on the other hand, were made by Arflex, a company set up in 1950 to an idea by the Pirelli engineer Carlo Barassi, which produced furniture upholstered with Pirelli foam rubber, bringing chairs, armchairs, sofas, and beds onto the market. They were designed by the greatest names in 1950s architecture and design, building on the experience acquired in the 1930s, when several Rationalist architects, including Ponti himself, had carried out the first experiments in furniture upholstered with latex foam rubber, which had been exhibited in the furniture show of the VI Triennale di Milano in 1936. “Hall” armchairs, designed by Roberto Menghi in 1958, were chosen for the waiting rooms in the tower. The Pirellone was ready to embark on its new life." Publications; Ponti, Fornaroli, Rosselli, Valtolina, Dell'Orto, Gli interni, in "Edilizia Moderna", nr. 71, december 1960, p. 84;

Creator:
Gio Ponti (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 30.32 in (77 cm)Width: 155.91 in (396 cm)Depth: 47.25 in (120 cm)
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Metal,Rosewood
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1950-1959
Date of Manufacture:
1950s
Condition:
Seller Location:
Amsterdam, NL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU5211228396132

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 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.