Gio Ponti Occasional Table by Fontana Arte, Italy, 1931
View Similar Items
Gio Ponti Occasional Table by Fontana Arte, Italy, 1931
About the Item
- Creator:Fontana Arte (Manufacturer),Gio Ponti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 16.15 in (41 cm)Diameter: 12.21 in (31 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1931
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Munich, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU100507256523
Gio Ponti
An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.
Ponti (1891–1979) designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, lamps 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.
His 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 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 Gio Ponti furniture on 1stDibs.
Fontana Arte
Best known for its elegant and innovative vintage lighting fixtures, the Milan-based firm Fontana Arte pioneered one of the key features of 20th-century and contemporary Italian design: the union of artistry and industry wrought by partnerships between creative talents — chiefly architects — and entrepreneurial businesses. Fontana Arte is further distinguished by having had as artistic director, in succession, four of Italy’s most inventive modernist designers: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, French transplant Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti.
The bread and butter of the glassmaking company that Luigi Fontana founded in 1881 was plate-glass panels for the construction industry. In 1930, Fontana met Ponti — then the artistic director of the Richard Ginori ceramics workshop and the editor of the influential magazine Domus — at a biannual design exhibition that became the precursor to today’s Milan Design Triennale, and the two hatched an idea for a furniture and housewares firm. Fontana Arte was incorporated in 1932 with Ponti as its chief of design. He contributed several lamps that remain among the company’s signature works, including the orb-atop-cone Bilia table lamp and the 0024 pendant — a stratified hanging sphere.
The following year, Fontana Arte partnered with the influential Milan studio glassmaker and retailer Pietro Chiesa, who took over as artistic director. Chiesa’s designs for lighting — as well as for tables and items including vases and ashtrays — express an appreciation for fluidity and simplicity of line, as seen in works such as his flute-shaped Luminator floor lamp and the 1932 Fontana table — an arched sheet of glass that is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Six years after Chiesa’s 1948 death, the École des Beaux Arts–trained Max Ingrand took over as head of design at Fontana Arte. Ingrand brought a similarly expressive formal sensibility to wares such as lamps and mirrors, but he also had a masterful eye for the manipulation of glass surfaces — whether they be cut, frosted, acid-etched or sand-blasted. His classic design is the Fontana table lamp of 1954, which has a truncated cone shade and curved body, both of which are made of pure, chic white-frosted glass.
Following Ingrand, the often-audacious Italian architect Gae Aulenti served as the company’s artistic director from 1979 to 1996, and while she generally insisted that furnishings take second place aesthetically to architecture, she made an exception for Fontana Arte pieces such as the Tavolo con Ruote series of glass coffee and dining tables on wheels, bold lighting pieces such as the Parola series and the Giova, a combination flower vase and table lamp. As a key incubator of modern design under Aulenti’s tenure, Fontana Arte remained true to its long-held commitment — creating objects that have never been less than daring.
Find vintage Fontana Arte lighting fixtures such as pendants, table lamps and more on 1stDibs.
- Fontana Arte Wooden Glass Box, Italy, 1950sBy Fontana ArteLocated in Munich, DEAttributed to Fontana Arte handmade box designed in a wooden blackened oak frame and a glass top composed with a silvered rim.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Decorative Boxes
MaterialsSilver Plate
- Outstanding Italien Coffee Table with Massive Glass Top by Fontana ArteBy Fontana ArteLocated in Munich, DEWooden legs with brass fittings and details.Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGlass
$2,196 Sale Price37% Off - Ultra Rare Gio Ponti SofaBy Gio PontiLocated in Munich, DEFoam and fabric redone designed by Gio Ponti in 1958 for the hotel Parco Dei Principe in Sorrento, Italy. Made by Cassina in limited quantities.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsWood
$5,491 Sale Price33% Off - Elegant Fontana Arte Floor LampBy Fontana Arte, Max IngrandLocated in Munich, DEWonderful patinated and elegant floor lamp by fontana arte.Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Amazing Table Lamp in the Manner of Fontana ArteBy Fontana ArteLocated in Munich, DENickel platet metal and glass base. Adjustable shade.Category
Vintage 1960s Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsGlass
$1,087 Sale Price31% Off - Wonderful Italian Sofa Attributed to Gio Ponti and Completely Re-UpholsteredBy Gio PontiLocated in Munich, DEAmazing lines resting on two legs in front and two castors at the back for easy moving. Belts, foam and velvet completely redone.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsVelvet
$4,393 Sale Price38% Off
- Gio Ponti & Pietro Chiesa Side Table Set 2 by Fontana ArteBy Gio Ponti, Fontana Arte, Pietro ChiesaLocated in Milano, MIRare pair of side tables by Gio Ponti & Pietro Chiesa produced by Fontana Arte. Petite pair of tables with compass legs and angled mirror tops. Wood h...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsMirror, Wood
- Gio Ponti Coffee Table for Fontana ArteBy Gio Ponti, Fontana ArteLocated in Sag Harbor, NYSimple, elegant and functional coffee or cocktail table. Suspended on tapered brass legs are two levels of glass. Designed by Gio Ponti and manufactured by Fontana Arte ca. 1955. Gla...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
$12,000 Sale Price20% Off - A Rare Gio Ponti Occasional TableBy Gio PontiLocated in Sag Harbor, NYThis rare of Gio Ponti designed solid walnut table was produced by Schirolli for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in the mid 1950s.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- 20th Century Gio Ponti Fontana Arte Coffee Table in Wood and Butterfly Glass TopBy Fontana Arte, Gio PontiLocated in Turin, TurinAn eclectic personality, from his early days Gio Ponti was active in the fields of architecture, painting, graphics and set design. In 1932 - together with Pietro Chiesa and Luigi Fo...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGlass, Wood
- Coffee Table by Gio Ponti, Fontana ArteBy Gio PontiLocated in Brussels, BECoffee table by Gio Ponti, Fontana Arte.Category
Vintage 1930s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsCrystal
- Gio Ponti wooden and glass occasional table, Italy, 1930sBy Gio PontiLocated in Chiavari, LiguriaAn occasional table with a black lacquered wood base and ground glass tops, designed by Gio Ponti in 1932 and produced by the Italian company Luigi Fontana & C. This side table, tho...Category
Vintage 1930s Italian Bauhaus Side Tables
MaterialsMetal
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.