Over a long career, Gio Ponti fused traditional Italian technique with modern materials, design, and industry. He designed the “Fireside” chair model around 1939, creating a look that has since become world-famous. The characteristic look rests on the high ladder back and the masterful pairing of quality materials.

The high ladder back is quite striking with carved details and dramatic angles that are typical of the Italian architect and designer. Ponti is associated with the development of modern architecture and modern industrial design in Italy and is considered the pioneer of 'Modern Milan', a slogan that perfectly sums up his modus operandi. His creations - including this chair - have contributed to the reconstruction of the Italian taste for art, especially in the critical post-war period. As the name suggests, this model was created with cosiness in mind in a physical form that is immediately recognizable. The design is sophisticated, economic and modern accordingly to Ponti’s ideals regarding furniture. The solid wood frame offers plenty of shapes and forms, including the sculpted slats on the back and the fan shape thanks to which these slats gradually grow in size. The natural woven rush seat adds a rustic touch to the design and complements the smooth surface and dark colour of the stained wood structure. The lower part of this chair also offers plenty, with stretchers on all sides. The front stretcher is placed higher to showcase the back one that connects directly with the elongated backrest

Unlike his modernist colleagues, Ponti did not believe form had to follow function. Instead, Ponti wrote, “I am tempted to say that form is an ideal contribution, independent of functionality and originated from concepts of essentiality and truth, and that functionality, always implicit in everything, has nothing to do with the matter.”

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SOLD

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Condition:

In good vintage condition. Wear consistent with age and use. Some marks and scratches on the wood. The back is slightly asymmetric.

Dimensions:

16.92 in W x 18.11 in D x 40.15 in H; Seat height 11.81 in

43 cm W x 46 cm D x 102 cm H; Seat height 30 cm

About the designer:

Giovanni "Gio" Ponti (18 November 1891 – 16 September 1979) was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer, and publisher. During his career, which spanned six decades, Ponti built more than a hundred buildings in Italy and in the rest of the world.

He designed a considerable number of decorative art and design objects as well as furniture. Thanks to the magazine Domus, which he founded in 1928 and directed almost all his life, and thanks to his active participation in exhibitions such as the Milan Triennial, he was also an enthusiastic advocate of an Italian-style art of living and a major player in the renewal of Italian design after the Second World War. From 1936 to 1961, he taught at the Milan Polytechnic School and trained several generations of designers. Ponti also contributed to the creation in 1954 of one of the most important design awards: the Compasso d'Oro prize.

Gio Ponti was a true 20th-century Renaissance man whose aesthetic creativity was inexhaustible. His incredible sense of design manifested through his one-of-a-kind pieces as well as his later mass-produced works from the 1950s. Ponti is also remembered for his wide range of his achievements using many different materials-ceramic, glass, wood, aluminium and enamel-as well as his significant works with collaborators Paolo De Poli and Piero Fornasetti. ~H.