A SIDE CHAIR FOR THE CASA DEL SOLE, CERVINIA, DESIGNED 1953

Details

CARLO MOLLINO (1905-1973)
A SIDE CHAIR FOR THE CASA DEL SOLE, CERVINIA, DESIGNED 1953
executed by Ettore Canali, Brescia, chestnut, brass bolts
36 ½ in. (93 cm.) high

Literature

For other examples of this model illustrated:
N. Ferrari, Carlo Mollino: Cronaca, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Fulvio Ferrari, Turin, 1985, p. 137, pl. 229;
G. Brino, Carlo Mollino: Architecture as Autobiography, New York 1987, p. 139;
I de Guttry, M. P. Maino, L'Étrange Univers de l'Architecte Carlo Mollino, Paris, 1989-1990, p. 122;
R. Colombari, Il mobile italiano degli anni ’40 e ’50, Rome, 1992, p. 214, pl. 24;
F. Ferrari, N. Ferrari, Carlo Mollino, Furniture Catalogue, Milan, 2005, p. 54, no. 84;
F. Ferrari, N. Ferrari, The Furniture of Carlo Mollino, London, 2006, pp. 204-206, 230;
N. Ferrari, Carlo Mollino: Arabesques, Verona, 2006, p.107, pl. 173-174;
N. Ferrari, Mollino: Casa del Sole, Turin, 2007, pp. 78, 80-81, 93.

Exhibited

Special notice

Please note this lot will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) at 5pm on the last day of the sale. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services. Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information. This sheet is available from the Bidder Registration staff, Purchaser Payments or the Packing Desk and will be sent with your invoice.

Lot Essay

The ‘Casa del Sole’, completed 1953-54 was conceived as a winter sports complex, and occupied a difficult mountain terrain near Cervinia, in the Italian Alps. To compliment his buildings, Mollino designed a series of furnishings of conspicuously rugged construction in order to withstand regular use, and stylistically were informed by Mollino’s earlier studies into Alpine, vernacular furniture and architecture. The chairs created for the apartments and for the Pavia Restaurant reveal the subtleties of Mollino’s own personalised references, for instance the gently hooked, horn-like aspects to the rear of the seats, and a distinctively bi-partite back, the symbolism of which, considering the architect’s interests, may be reasonably associated to reflect corset-like sensuality.

This lot is sold with a certificate of authenticity from The Museo Casa Mollino.

In total, around 150 chairs were originally produced, from which some estimates suggest that less than 50 now remain.

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