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Lot Essay
The table here reproduced, catalogued in the Casa Mollino Museum Archives as CM 131-2, original in all its parts, can undoubtedly be considered a unique piece among the tables produced for the company Singer & Sons based in New York. It is unique for its black lacquer outlook, a finish that Mollino reserved only for a few special pieces of furniture.It differs in its proportions from the tables produced for Singer and, above all, it differs in the refinement with which its structure has been carved. One could consider for example the upper parts of the wooden structure which are sensually crafted on one side and are ending in an incredibly thin surface on the other side. Close to sexiness. The lower legs, supported by brassspheres, are three-dimensionally shaped with sections of varying thickness. This table shows exceptional attention to details and an extraordinary complexity of realization, setting it apart from the other tables produced for Singer. It is a graceful organic sculpture, a creature, perhaps a greyhound, a thoroughbred, delicate, alive,and nervous. The egg-shaped tempered glass tops iconically, and slightly ironically, confirm the organic quality of the table.Mollino, which was deeply influenced by the surrealist culture, typically imbued his furniture with expressive and symbolic forms, and it would be sufficient to look to a painting such as 1935 Dalí’s “Femme à la tête de roses,” to find a similar sensitivity.
HISTORY
In the summer of 1950, Josef Singer traveled to Italy for several months to meet architects willing to design furniture for his company, Singer & Sons of New York. Mr Singer was committed to innovating his production, switching away from the until then classic-antique furniture models. Through Gio Ponti, he also contacted Carlo Mollino, who by August 14 had already designed two tables of drawings with 10 different furniture models for him. On September 11, Josef was in Turin at Carlo’s office to get the drawings and establish commercial agreements. Models 4 and 6 were chosen, plywood and sculpted wood. At the beginning of 1951, a sample of each low table was delivered in New York. Meanwhile, on November 29, 1950, the exhibition “Italy at Work” opened at the Brooklyn Museum, and later toured other 11 American Museums, where Mollino exhibited several striking pieces of furniture. On November 5, 1951, the new “Modern by Singer” collection was inaugurated on 19th Street, featuring furniture by Gio Ponti, Ico Parisi, Carlo Mollino, Carlo de Carli, and Bertha Schaefer. The Herald Tribune reported on this presentation, and in December, an article by Dorcas Brennan in Interiors. For cost reasons, only table no. 6 was actually marketed by Singer & Sons, with catalog number 1114.
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
The low table for Singer sits at the peak of Carlo Mollino’s “sculptural” period. Precisely from 1944 to 1950, he explored the possibilities of hand-carved wood, creating biomorphic furniture. In 1950, he either began using curved plywood or simplified his designs, moving to straight cut elements and forms, which resemble diagrams of structural patterns, kept together by metallic joints. Instead in the 1940s the skeletal structure of his furniture was articulated in richly molded forms. It seems that Mollino passed the work of Gaudí and Art Nouveau through the purifying filter of the Modern Movement, from the Bauhaus to the Esprit Nouveau, in search of a synthesis between the functional structure of a machine and the expressiveness of the vitality of an organism. And sometimes it seems Mollino was able to touch that symbiotic perfection. Essential to the creation of his furniture is the “Apelli e Varesio” workshop in Turin, capable of carrying out the most complex jobs. Mollino exploits their virtuosity to design impossible furniture. A photo of the Apelli & Varesio shop approximately shot in September 1951 shows the construction of the tables for Singer. There are about twenty of them, without any documentation telling us with certainty how many were produced, we can estimate the figure was more or less that one. Today seven circa survive. There are no historical documents which could witness the unique story of the black lacquered table, yet knowing Mollino’s eagerness to achieve exactly what he had imagined, we can guess he wanted one like that, just to show. The exchange of letters with Josef Singer tells that there was indeed a problem with the costs of production and export to the United States and that attempts were therefore made to contain those costs.
- Napoleone Ferrari
HISTORY
In the summer of 1950, Josef Singer traveled to Italy for several months to meet architects willing to design furniture for his company, Singer & Sons of New York. Mr Singer was committed to innovating his production, switching away from the until then classic-antique furniture models. Through Gio Ponti, he also contacted Carlo Mollino, who by August 14 had already designed two tables of drawings with 10 different furniture models for him. On September 11, Josef was in Turin at Carlo’s office to get the drawings and establish commercial agreements. Models 4 and 6 were chosen, plywood and sculpted wood. At the beginning of 1951, a sample of each low table was delivered in New York. Meanwhile, on November 29, 1950, the exhibition “Italy at Work” opened at the Brooklyn Museum, and later toured other 11 American Museums, where Mollino exhibited several striking pieces of furniture. On November 5, 1951, the new “Modern by Singer” collection was inaugurated on 19th Street, featuring furniture by Gio Ponti, Ico Parisi, Carlo Mollino, Carlo de Carli, and Bertha Schaefer. The Herald Tribune reported on this presentation, and in December, an article by Dorcas Brennan in Interiors. For cost reasons, only table no. 6 was actually marketed by Singer & Sons, with catalog number 1114.
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
The low table for Singer sits at the peak of Carlo Mollino’s “sculptural” period. Precisely from 1944 to 1950, he explored the possibilities of hand-carved wood, creating biomorphic furniture. In 1950, he either began using curved plywood or simplified his designs, moving to straight cut elements and forms, which resemble diagrams of structural patterns, kept together by metallic joints. Instead in the 1940s the skeletal structure of his furniture was articulated in richly molded forms. It seems that Mollino passed the work of Gaudí and Art Nouveau through the purifying filter of the Modern Movement, from the Bauhaus to the Esprit Nouveau, in search of a synthesis between the functional structure of a machine and the expressiveness of the vitality of an organism. And sometimes it seems Mollino was able to touch that symbiotic perfection. Essential to the creation of his furniture is the “Apelli e Varesio” workshop in Turin, capable of carrying out the most complex jobs. Mollino exploits their virtuosity to design impossible furniture. A photo of the Apelli & Varesio shop approximately shot in September 1951 shows the construction of the tables for Singer. There are about twenty of them, without any documentation telling us with certainty how many were produced, we can estimate the figure was more or less that one. Today seven circa survive. There are no historical documents which could witness the unique story of the black lacquered table, yet knowing Mollino’s eagerness to achieve exactly what he had imagined, we can guess he wanted one like that, just to show. The exchange of letters with Josef Singer tells that there was indeed a problem with the costs of production and export to the United States and that attempts were therefore made to contain those costs.
- Napoleone Ferrari