Gio Ponti - Design London Tuesday, October 31, 2023 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Phillips, New York, 'Design', 6 June 2017, lot 4
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    'A Teheran una villa', Domus, no. 422, January 1965, p. 18
    Laura Falconi, Gio Ponti: Interiors, Objects, Drawings 1920-1976, Milan, 2004, p. 192
    Ugo La Pietra, ed., Gio Ponti, New York, 2009, p. 324

  • Catalogue Essay

    Gio Ponti designed the present model coffee table for Villa Namazee, Tehran (1957-1964), and went on to use the same design for several other projects.

  • Artist Biography

    Gio Ponti

    Italian • 1891 - 1979

    Among the most prolific talents to grace twentieth-century design, Gio Ponti defied categorization. Though trained as an architect, he made major contributions to the decorative arts, designing in such disparate materials as ceramics, glass, wood and metal. A gale force of interdisciplinary creativity, Ponti embraced new materials like plastic and aluminum but employed traditional materials such as marble and wood in original, unconventional ways.

    In the industrial realm, he designed buildings, cars, machinery and appliances — notably, the La Cornuta espresso machine for La Pavoni — and founded the ADI (Industrial Designer Association). Among the most special works by Gio Ponti are those that he made in collaboration with master craftsmen such as the cabinetmaker Giordano Chiesa, the illustrator Piero Fornasetti and the enamellist Paolo de Poli.

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116

Rare coffee table

circa 1965
Coloured mirrored glass, brass.
42.2 x 125.8 x 126 cm (16 5/8 x 49 1/2 x 49 5/8 in.)
Glass produced by Fontana Arte, Milan, Italy. Together with a certificate of expertise from the Gio Ponti Archives.

Estimate
£15,000 - 20,000 

Sold for £19,050

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com

 

Design

London Auction 31 October 2023