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Lot Essay
Piero Bottoni was an influential pre-war Italian architect, and one of the leading proponents of the Rationalist movement that defined the 1930s. From 1929-1949 Bottoni was the Italian delegate to the International Congress of Modern Architecture. From the late 1930s, Bottoni contributed to the development of town planning, working alongside real estate developer Arnaldo Perego in Milan, to whom Bottoni presented this dining suite.
This dining table delivers vital, aerodynamic styling that anticipates the monocoque single-pedestal dining tables not created until the 1950s by Eero Saarinen, and can be regarded as a unique form within international interior design of the 1930s. The table, which is believed to be one of only two timber examples to have been made, relates directly to the four-metre white granite example installed in the now ruined Villa Muggia, built by Bottoni for the Commandante di Bologna, 1936-1938. In the case of both tables, it appears that Bottoni collaborated with other designer-architects to supply the dining chairs -- chromed tubular steel chairs by Gabriele Mucchi were used in the Villa Muggia, while the present chairs conform almost exactly to a model created 1937-1938 by Franco Albini.
This dining table delivers vital, aerodynamic styling that anticipates the monocoque single-pedestal dining tables not created until the 1950s by Eero Saarinen, and can be regarded as a unique form within international interior design of the 1930s. The table, which is believed to be one of only two timber examples to have been made, relates directly to the four-metre white granite example installed in the now ruined Villa Muggia, built by Bottoni for the Commandante di Bologna, 1936-1938. In the case of both tables, it appears that Bottoni collaborated with other designer-architects to supply the dining chairs -- chromed tubular steel chairs by Gabriele Mucchi were used in the Villa Muggia, while the present chairs conform almost exactly to a model created 1937-1938 by Franco Albini.