GIO PONTI (1891-1979), A RARE 'ARLECCHINO' COFFEE TABLE, EXECUTED FOR A PRIVATE COMMISSION, MILAN, CIRCA 1956

GIO PONTI (1891-1979)
A rare 'Arlecchino' coffee table, executed for a private commission, Milan, circa 1956
painted brass, brass, glass, rubber
executed by Giordano Chiesa, Milan, Italy
14 ½ x 32 in. diameter ( 37.5 x 81.5 cm.)

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Pre-Lot Text
Ponti In The Domestic Realm: A Rediscovery
By the late 1940s, Gio Ponti undertook a vast number of interior design commissions that were exclusively limited to furniture elements, which often meant dispensing with an all-encompassing environment. Technological innovations transformed the building industry while living conditions changed, facilitating residential mobility. Architects and designers of fixtures, fittings and furniture produced objects that were no longer tied to a specific context.
This recently discovered private commission brings to light more of Ponti's deft handling of the demands emerging with the new situation. This was the time when he ran both large and small-scale architectural projects with a tireless drive to experiment that generated flexible matrices adaptable to fundamentally different domestic conditions, even in large-scale housing developments. This autonomous approach offered his clients, of varying socio-economic backgrounds a chance to experience and inhabit a Ponti realm, regardless of the different costs levels.
In this commission, the scope of which is limited to the reception and dining room of a Milan apartment, Ponti relies on his most trusted manufacturers: Cassina for the upholstered pieces and Giordano Chiesa for the dining chairs and all other unique designs. In one instance Ponti selects Cassina production chairs and customises them with brass sabots on every leg, to achieve a smart and minimal result. Ponti's choices also include model 803 chairs, the diamond profile low chair with a matching settee variation and the elongated winged armchair 820 for the reception room.
Meanwhile he entrusted all the custom pieces to his faithful ebanista, Giordano Chiesa, who devised with elegant solutions at every turn. His supreme skill at interpreting Ponti’s project is evident in two custom pieces with subtle shadow lines around the various parts of both the long credenza and the circular dining table. The credenza has a striking salient quality with its gently bowed centre underlined by a shadowed outer frame profile. Ponti's postitivo/negativo method is clearly demonstrated in the central open shelf, a rectangular void that functions as a visual counterpoint to the six triangular pierced brass legs. The table design suggests separations along the circular geometries of the top and base, which impart a weightlessness to the overall form.
The Arlecchino lattice coffee table (1955), is now seen as one of his most iconic designs, along with the Altamira desk (1954), and Superleggera chair (1957). This compelling work reveals Ponti as the "painter" he had wanted to be in his youth. Echoing in three dimensions the painterly approach of De Stijl artists Mondrian and van Doesburg, he relies on a structural grid in enamelled metal that allows for four different colour combinations, depending on vantage points.

This mercurial design is the anchor for the entire program. It provides focus and cohesive force to the many distinct elements of this domestic realm that include a range of wall treatments, a suspended mirror, cantilevered shelves, and window coverings using a stylised sun pattern that Ponti titled Soli.
These complex yet streamlined furniture forms neatly fold into his large scale architectural projects of the period. In fact, these underlying schemes between inner design and outer architecture are highly compatible. Indeed, they are essential components of the “Ponti look“ that came to define this prolific period in his career and exemplified his theoretical manifestos on design, such as his concept of the "fitted house".
Brian Kish
Curator and Specialist in 20th century Italian architecture and design. Since 2006 he has been an associate member of the Gio Ponti Archives.
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MILAN