italia – [merzbau]

Gaetano Pesce (Italy 1939-2024)

Designed by Gaetano Pesce in the 1980s this is an early edition feltri (felt) Cassina chair which was purchased from its first owner.

100cm wide x 84cm deep x 113cm high (seat height is 45cm)

The feltri chair is a radical 1980s Italian design that brought craft materials and thinking into the realm of product design. Pesce was aware (like the artist Joseph Beuys in the 70s) of the symbolism of felt as an industrial material – serving as a metaphor for warmth, survival and psychological protection. These chairs were manufactured with detachable back quilts and seats in a variety of colorways (like many products during the era) in order to appeal to the taste of customers. This chair has a black seat and extra back cushion and a light ‘baby blue’ quilt. (the previous owner used it mostly without the quilt attached).

Price: 3.900 euro

http://www.merzbaufurniture.com

Enzo Mari (Italy 1932-2020)

Autoprogettazione Chair ‘Sedia 1’, after a design by Enzo Mari, 1990s.

Pine wood and nails. 50 x 52.5 x 85cm high (seat 47cm high)

In 1974, the Italian designer Enzo Mari published 19 furniture designs that one could make by oneself in his book ‘Autoprogettazione?’. With this programm he created a counter proposal to the paradigm of mass consumption, an alternative to formalism and opening a path to the democratisation of design.
This chair was made by a skilled carpenter according to the original ideas Enzo Mari in the 1990s and has since gained a desirable warm patina.
Nice original condition. Some small scratches and stains commensurate with age.

Price: 1.100 euro

http://www.merzbaufurniture.com