Componibili Red Storage Unit by Kartell
View Similar Items
Componibili Red Storage Unit by Kartell
About the Item
- Creator:Anna Castelli Ferrieri (Designer),Kartell (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 15.5 in (39.37 cm)Diameter: 12.5 in (31.75 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1970s
- Condition:
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: C081720121stDibs: U12080978872091
Kartell
The Italian design giant Kartell transformed plastic from the stuff of humble household goods into a staple of luxury design in the 1960s. Founded in Milan by Italian chemical engineer Giulio Castelli (1920–2006) and his wife Anna Ferrieri (1918–2006), Kartell began as an industrial design firm, producing useful items like ski racks for automobiles and laboratory equipment designed to replace breakable glass with sturdy plastic. Even as companies like Olivetti and Vespa were making Italian design popular in the 1950s, typewriters and scooters were relatively costly, and Castelli and Ferrieri wanted to provide Italian consumers with affordable, stylish goods.
They launched a housewares division of Kartell in 1953, making lighting fixtures and kitchen tools and accessories from colorful molded plastic. Consumers in the postwar era were initially skeptical of plastic goods, but their affordability and infinite range of styles and hues eventually won devotees. Tupperware parties in the United States made plastic storage containers ubiquitous in postwar homes, and Kartell’s ingenious designs for juicers, dustpans, and dish racks conquered Europe. Kartell designer Gino Colombini was responsible for many of these early products, and his design for the KS 1146 Bucket won the Compasso d’Oro prize in 1955.
Buoyed by its success in the home goods market, Kartell introduced its Habitat division in 1963. Designers Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper created the K1340 (later called the K 4999) children’s chair that year, and families enjoyed their bright colors and light weight, which made them easy for kids to pick up and move. In 1965, Joe Colombo (1924–78) created one of Kartell’s few pieces of non-plastic furniture, the 4801 chair, which sits low to the ground and comprised of just three curved pieces of plywood. (In 2012, Kartell reissued the chair in plastic.) Colombo followed up on the success of the 4801 with the iconic 4867 Universal Chair in 1967, which, like Verner Panton’s S chair, is made from a single piece of plastic. The colorful, stackable injection-molded chair was an instant classic. That same year, Kartell introduced Colombo’s KD27 table lamp. Ferrierei’s cylindrical 4966 Componibili storage module debuted in 1969.
Kartell achieved international recognition for its innovative work in 1972, when a landmark exhibition curated by Emilio Ambasz called “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. That show introduced American audiences to the work of designers such as Gaetano Pesce; Ettore Sottsass, founder of the Memphis Group; and the firms Archizoom and Superstudio (both firms were among Italy's Radical design groups) — all of whom were using wit, humor and unorthodox materials to create a bracingly original interior aesthetic.
Castelli and Ferrieri sold Kartell to Claudio Luti, their son-in-law, in 1988, and since then, Luti has expanded the company’s roster of designers.
Kartell produced Ron Arad’s Bookworm wall shelf in 1994, and Philippe Starck’s La Marie chair in 1998. More recently, Kartell has collaborated with the Japanese collective Nendo, Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola and glass designer Tokujin Yoshioka, among many others. Kartell classics can be found in museums around the world, including MoMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In 1999, Claudio Luti established the Museo Kartell to tell the company’s story, through key objects from its innovative and colorful history.
Find vintage Kartell tables, seating, table lamps and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Early 19th Century American Stool in Old Red WashLocated in New York, NYThis is a wonderfully folky stool. Found in Pennsylvania. It retains an old, dry red wash on the legs. The seat is made from a sold plank. The entire item is pegged pegged constructi...Category
Antique Early 19th Century American Primitive Stools
MaterialsWood
$1,210 Sale Price44% Off - Set of 2 Cantilever End Tables by DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in New York, NYA set of two cantilever top end tables--one with shelf and the other without—for a less "matched" look. Made by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. USA, circa 1950. Made of mahogany and pr...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsWood, Mahogany
- Coffee - Cocktail Table by Fred Kemp In Soapstone and WalnutBy Fred KempLocated in New York, NYRound soapstone (often called slate but not slate) topped cocktail or coffee table with octagonal walnut base by St. Louis architect, Fred Kemp. Kemp was a l...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsSlate
$1,760 Sale Price44% Off - Frej-Odense Tall Danish Jewelry or Linen CabinetBy Frej-OdenseLocated in New York, NYA jewelry or linen cabinet with accordian front concealing multiple interior drawers. Made by Frej-Odense. Signed. Denmark, circa 1960. Ideal for a variety of uses, from jewlery a...Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsWood
- Dunbar Gentleman’s Chest from WyethBy Dunbar FurnitureLocated in New York, NYEdward Wormley for Dunbar Gentleman's Chest, a mid-century modern dressing cabinet. USA, circa 1950. Crafted of dark stained walnut with the rectangular top centering a lifting...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsMirror, Wood
- Paul McCobb Etagere / Hutch / Credenza for Calvin GroupBy Paul McCobbLocated in New York, NYA refined etagere of rectilinear form in mahogany and brass having a lower cabinet with folding doors resting square brass legs, supporting an upper cabinet with doors, glass shelves...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsBrass
- Kartell Componibili 2-Tier Drawer in Red by Anna Castelli FerrieriBy Kartell, Anna Castelli FerrieriLocated in Brooklyn, NYModular elements were designed to meet various needs and to fit into any room in your home: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, or living room. The design solution that animates the Modular ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsPlastic
- Kartell Componibili 2-Tier Drawer in Red by Anna Castelli FerrieriBy Kartell, Anna Castelli FerrieriLocated in Brooklyn, NYModular elements were designed to meet various needs and to fit into any room in your home: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen or living room. The design solution that animates the Modular s...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsPlastic
- Kartell Componibili 3-Tier Drawer in Red by Anna Castelli FerrieriBy Kartell, Anna Castelli FerrieriLocated in Brooklyn, NYModular elements were designed to meet various needs and to fit into any room in your home: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen or living room. The design solution that animates the Modular s...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsPlastic
- Kartell Componibili 3-Tier Drawer in Red by Anna Castelli FerrieriBy Kartell, Anna Castelli FerrieriLocated in Brooklyn, NYModular elements were designed to meet various needs and to fit into any room in your home: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen or living room. The design solution that animates the modular s...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsPlastic
- Kartell Componibili 2-Tier Drawer in Smile Red by Anna Castelli FerrieriBy Kartell, Anna Castelli FerrieriLocated in Brooklyn, NYModular elements were designed to meet various needs and to fit into any room in your home: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen or living room. The design solution that animates the Modular s...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsPlastic
- Kartell Componibili 2-Tier Drawer in Smile Red by Anna Castelli FerrieriBy Anna Castelli Ferrieri, KartellLocated in Brooklyn, NYModular elements were designed to meet various needs and to fit into any room in your home: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen or living room. The design solution that animates the Modular system is the elementary and solid vertical overlapping of interlocking single pieces to create practical storage furniture., Modular pieces can be rested on wheels. Flexible, functional, practical, Modular pieces have been in production for almost forty years and have received a great deal of recognition for the project's significance and innovation (they can be found on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Centre George Pompidou...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsPlastic