RADIOGRAM CABINET

Details

GIO PONTI; ITALY
RADIOGRAM CABINET
1950, painted and varnished wood, with brass sabots, overall applied lithographed paper decoration by Piero Fornasetti, now lacking electrical components
31½ in. (80 cm.) high; 34¼ in. (87 cm.) wide; 16¼ in. (41 cm.) deep

Literature

Ugo La Pietra, Gio Ponti, New York, 1995,l p.164 (illustrated)
Patrick Mauriès, Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams, London, 1991, p.53 (illustrated)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

As a furniture model new to the mid-twentieth-century, radiogram cabinets frequently represented a challenge for designers, many of whom felt obliged to disguise or conceal the object's intended purpose. This example however, seeks instead to celebrate the object's functionalism through the overall application of sheet music and other musical references to create an almost surrealistic object.

More from 20th Century Decorative Art and Design

View All