Gino Levi Montalcini and Giuseppe Pagano - Important Design London Wednesday, March 20, 2019 | Phillips

Important Design

London Auction 21 March 2019

  • Provenance

    Palazzo Gualino, Turin

  • Literature

    'La nuova costruzione moderna per uffici, in Torino, sul Corso Vittorio Emanuele architettata da G. Pagano-Pogatschnig, e G. Levi-Montalcini', Domus, no. 30, June 1930, pp. 88-89 for similar examples
    Irene de Guttry and Maria Paola Maino, Il mobile déco italiano 1920-1940, Bari, 1988, p. 189 for similar examples
    Emilio Garda, 'I materiali artificiali dell'invenzione', Domus, no. 839, July/August 2001, p. 12 for the desk and chair

  • Catalogue Essay

    Riccardo Gualino commissioned Giuseppe Pagano and Gino Levi Montalcini to design the Palazzo degli Uffici Gualino in 1928. The strong horizontal emphasis of the reinforced concrete building’s light yellow and green façade is repeated in the design of the present works. The desk, chair and bookcase illustrate three of the sixty-seven different furniture models designed for the interior. The unified furnishings plan made use of modernist materials such as chromium-plated metal, glass, Salpa leather and Buxus – a new cellulose-based product manufactured by the Giacomo Bosso factory where the furniture was also made. The project received immediate critical acclaim as one of Italy’s first fully realised examples of Rationalist architecture, with Domus devoting an entire issue to the commission in the summer of 1930.

20

Gino Levi Montalcini and Giuseppe Pagano

Desk, chair and bookcase, designed for the Palazzo Gualino, Turin

circa 1929
Buxus-covered wood, painted wood.
Desk: 80 x 140 x 74 cm (31 1/2 x 55 1/8 x 29 1/8 in.)
Chair: 80.2 x 45 x 46 cm (31 5/8 x 17 3/4 x 18 1/8 in.)
Library unit: 217.3 x 140.5 x 49 cm (85 1/2 x 55 3/8 x 19 1/4 in.)
Manufactured by Cartiere Giacomo Bosso, Turin, Italy.

Estimate
£6,000 - 8,000 

Contact Specialist
Madalena Horta E Costa
Head of Sale
+44 20 7318 4019
mhortaecosta@phillips.com

Important Design

London Auction 21 March 2019