Gae Aulenti Square Coffee Table with Wheels for Fontana Arte, 1980
View Similar Items
Gae Aulenti Square Coffee Table with Wheels for Fontana Arte, 1980
About the Item
- Creator:Gae Aulenti (Designer),Fontana Arte (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 9.06 in (23 cm)Width: 39.38 in (100 cm)Depth: 39.38 in (100 cm)
- Style:Post-Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:1980-1989
- Date of Manufacture:1980
- Condition:Repaired.
- Seller Location:Montecatini Terme, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU5304221655032
Gae Aulenti
The Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti will forever be best remembered for her work with museums, in particular her 1980–86 renovation of a Beaux Arts Paris train station to create the galleries of the Musée d’Orsay. Aulenti — whose first name, short for Gaetana, is pronounced “guy” — should also be recalled for her tough intellectual spirit and for working steadily when few women found successful architectural careers in postwar Italy.
After she graduated from the Milan Polytechic in 1954, Aulenti opened an architectural office. She also joined the staff of the progressive architectural magazine Casabella, whose editorial line was that the establishment, orthodox modernism of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, had outlived it usefulness. When their movement for fresh approaches to architecture and design received a sympathetic hearing, Aulenti found patrons — most prominently Gianni Agnelli, of Fiat, who later employed her to renovate the Palazzo Grassi in Venice for use as an arts exhibition space.
Commissions for showrooms and other corporate spaces brought Aulenti to furniture design. She felt that furniture should never dominate a room. Her chairs and sofas — low-slung, with rounded enameled metal frames and ample seats — and tables, particularly her 1972 marble Jumbo coffee table for Knoll, project solidity and sturdiness. In lighting design, however, Aulenti is bravura. Each work has a marvelous sculptural presence. Pieces such as her Pipistrello table lamp and Quadrifoglio pendant are a perfect marriage of organically shaped glass and high-tech fixtures. Others have a futuristic elegance — and some even have a touch of personality. Aulenti’s Pileino and La Ruspa table lamps each look almost like little robots. Her lighting pieces are an artful grace note in the career of a woman who believed in strength.
Fontana Arte
Best known for its elegant and innovative vintage lighting fixtures, the Milan-based firm Fontana Arte pioneered one of the key features of 20th-century and contemporary Italian design: the union of artistry and industry wrought by partnerships between creative talents — chiefly architects — and entrepreneurial businesses. Fontana Arte is further distinguished by having had as artistic director, in succession, four of Italy’s most inventive modernist designers: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, French transplant Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti.
The bread and butter of the glassmaking company that Luigi Fontana founded in 1881 was plate-glass panels for the construction industry. In 1930, Fontana met Ponti — then the artistic director of the Richard Ginori ceramics workshop and the editor of the influential magazine Domus — at a biannual design exhibition that became the precursor to today’s Milan Design Triennale, and the two hatched an idea for a furniture and housewares firm. Fontana Arte was incorporated in 1932 with Ponti as its chief of design. He contributed several lamps that remain among the company’s signature works, including the orb-atop-cone Bilia table lamp and the 0024 pendant — a stratified hanging sphere.
The following year, Fontana Arte partnered with the influential Milan studio glassmaker and retailer Pietro Chiesa, who took over as artistic director. Chiesa’s designs for lighting — as well as for tables and items including vases and ashtrays — express an appreciation for fluidity and simplicity of line, as seen in works such as his flute-shaped Luminator floor lamp and the 1932 Fontana table — an arched sheet of glass that is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Six years after Chiesa’s 1948 death, the École des Beaux Arts–trained Max Ingrand took over as head of design at Fontana Arte. Ingrand brought a similarly expressive formal sensibility to wares such as lamps and mirrors, but he also had a masterful eye for the manipulation of glass surfaces — whether they be cut, frosted, acid-etched or sand-blasted. His classic design is the Fontana table lamp of 1954, which has a truncated cone shade and curved body, both of which are made of pure, chic white-frosted glass.
Following Ingrand, the often-audacious Italian architect Gae Aulenti served as the company’s artistic director from 1979 to 1996, and while she generally insisted that furnishings take second place aesthetically to architecture, she made an exception for Fontana Arte pieces such as the Tavolo con Ruote series of glass coffee and dining tables on wheels, bold lighting pieces such as the Parola series and the Giova, a combination flower vase and table lamp. As a key incubator of modern design under Aulenti’s tenure, Fontana Arte remained true to its long-held commitment — creating objects that have never been less than daring.
Find vintage Fontana Arte lighting fixtures such as pendants, table lamps and more on 1stDibs.
- Massimo Vignelli Kono Table in Carrara Marble and Copper by Casigliani 1980sBy Massimo VignelliLocated in Montecatini Terme, ITKono coffee table designed by Massimo Vignelli and manufactured by Casigliani in 1980s. Low table with supports in oxidized copper and white Carrara marble and ground glass on top.Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsCarrara Marble, Copper
- Ettore Sottsass Rectangular Wooden Coffee Table by Poltronova 1960s ItalyBy Ettore Sottsass, PoltronovaLocated in Montecatini Terme, ITA rectangular low coffee table entirely made in wood, designed by Ettore Sottsass for Poltronova, Agliana 1960s. The son of an architect, Ettore Sottsass Jr. (1917-2007) was born i...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
- Gio Ponti Round Coffee Table in Walnut Wood Italian Manifacture 1940sBy Gio PontiLocated in Montecatini Terme, ITRound shaped coffee table with three legs, in walnut wood and brass details. Attribuited to Gio Ponti, Italian manufacture from the late 1940s to the early 1950s Gio Ponti was an icon of the modernist movement: the Italian designer, architect, artist and publisher contributed significantly to the worlds of architecture and design with his extensive work in fine furniture and ceramics, education, office and residential buildings, and everything in between. Giovanni, known as Gio Ponti was born in 1891 in Milan. It was there that he spent his childhood, and in 1921 he began to study architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. From 1923 to 1930 he served as the artistic director of the Richard-Ginori porcelain factory. In 1927, Ponti started his first architectural office, together with Emilio Lancia, and in 1928 he started the magazine Domus, which is still regarded as one of the most influential European magazines for architecture and design. He was also very influential during the period as a curator of the Milan Triennale. After his collaboration with Emilio Lancia had come to an end, upon completion of the Torre Rasini, he began to work as an architect together with the engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Gio Ponti Round Coffee Table in Walnut Wood Italian Manufacture 1950sBy Gio PontiLocated in Montecatini Terme, ITRound coffee table realized in walnut wood with metal details, the tabletop presents an elegant circular decorative motif. Attribuited to Gio Ponti, Italian manufacturer from the 1950s Gio Ponti was an icon of the modernist movement: the Italian designer, architect, artist and publisher contributed significantly to the worlds of architecture and design with his extensive work in fine furniture and ceramics, education, office and residential buildings, and everything in between. Giovanni, known as Gio Ponti was born in 1891 in Milan. It was there that he spent his childhood, and in 1921 he began to study architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. From 1923 to 1930 he served as the artistic director of the Richard-Ginori porcelain factory. In 1927, Ponti started his first architectural office, together with Emilio Lancia, and in 1928 he started the magazine Domus, which is still regarded as one of the most influential European magazines for architecture and design. He was also very influential during the period as a curator of the Milan Triennale. After his collaboration with Emilio Lancia had come to an end, upon completion of the Torre Rasini, he began to work as an architect together with the engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMetal
$1,821 Sale Price40% Off - Franco Albini Cicognino Coffee Table in Teak Wood by Poggi Pavia 1970s ItalyBy Franco Albini, PoggiLocated in Montecatini Terme, ITCicognino coffee table entirely made in teak wood designed by Franco Albini in 1952 and firstly produced by the Italian company, Poggi Pavia from the 1950s. The Cicognino coffee t...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsTeak
- Gio Ponti Coffee Table in Wood and Glass by Figli di Amedeo Cassina 1950sBy Gio Ponti, Figli di Amadeo CassinaLocated in Montecatini Terme, ITCoffee or occasional table with structure in wood a removable center part in sheet metal and a rectangular shaped table top designed by Gio Ponti and produced by Figli di Amedeo Cassina...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Coffee Table by Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte, 1980sBy Gae AulentiLocated in Brussels, BECoffee Table by Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte, 1980sCategory
Vintage 1980s Italian Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGlass
- Tour 3005 - High Table W/4 Wheels by Gae Aulenti, Fontana ArteBy Gae Aulenti, Fontana ArteLocated in Beverly Hills, CATour is the evolution of the Table with Wheels. Again with wheels, but in this case taken from bicycles, it was a surprising piece.Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGlass
- Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte Glass Coffee Table with WheelsLocated in Encino, CAGae Aulenti for Fontana Arte glass coffee table with black lacquered rubber wheels. Thick crystal top mounted on four black lacquered ...Category
1990s Italian Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsCut Glass
- Gae Aulenti Tavolo Con Ruote Low Glass Coffee Table on Casters for Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Gae AulentiLocated in Miami, FLDesigned by Gae Aulenti, this low coffee table consists of a tempered glass top supported by four black industrial wheels and was produced by Fontana Arte and imported by Luminaire. ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGlass
- 20th Century Italian Vintage Glass Coffee Table by Gae Aulenti & Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Gae AulentiLocated in West Palm Beach, FLA vintage Mid-Century Modern coffee table ( tavolo con route ) from Gae Aulenti, the original for Fontana Arte, with glass top and swivel wheels in good condition. The Italian indust...Category
Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGlass, Rubber
- Pair of glass and metal low tables by Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte, 1970sBy Gae Aulenti, Fontana ArteLocated in Milano, ITPair of low tables by Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte, 1970s Iconic pair of low tables with wheels, glass top and painted metal forks. Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte. Good condition, si...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMetal
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
We Dare You Not to Smile at These Whimsical Italian Designs
Make anyplace your happy place with Italian furniture at its subversive best.
We Took Over a Historic Milan Palazzo and Filled It with Edgy Design
With "A New Breed," we showcased exceptional pieces by rising talents, a rapidly growing area of strength among 1stdibs' many offerings.