Design 
28 October 2021
Design 
400

Gio Ponti

Diamond flatware

Reed & Barton
Italy / USA, 1958
sterling silver, stainless steel
estimate: $20,000–30,000
result: $32,500
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Complete seven-piece service for twenty-four plus twenty-one additional serving utensil; 189 pieces total. Service includes twenty-four dinner forks, twenty-four salad forks, twenty-four soup spoons, twenty-four teaspoons, twenty-four dinner knives, twenty-four butter knives, twenty-four cocktail forks, two serving spoons, two pierced serving spoons, two cold meat forks, two gravy ladles, two pie/cake servers, two master sugar spoons, two master butter knives, two pickle/olive forks, two cheese knives, one cream ladle, one jelly server and one bar knife. Impressed manufacturer's mark to each element ‘Reed & Barton Sterling’.
provenance: Private Collection, New Jersey
literature: Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design, Stern, pg. 245

This work will ship from Rago in Lambertville, New Jersey.

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Enchantment, a useless thing,
but as indispensable as bread.

Gio Ponti

Gio Ponti 1891–1979

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Gio Ponti excelled at painting as a child and expressed a fervent interest in the arts. Feeling that a career in architecture was preferable to that of a painter, Ponti’s parents encouraged him to pursue the former and in 1914 he enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. His studies were interrupted by war, and in 1915 he was forced to postpone his education. He served as a captain in the Pontonier Corps until 1919, earning multiple military honors. After graduating in 1921, Ponti married Giulia Vimercati, the daughter of local aristocracy and started an architecture firm. During this time, Ponti aligned himself with the neoclassical movement, Novecento and championed a revival of the arts and culture. In 1928, Ponti founded Domus, a periodical tailored to artists and designers, as well as the broader public. A shift occurred in the 1930s when Ponti took up a teaching post at his alma mater, the Politecnico di Milano. In search of new methods to express Italian modernity, Ponti distanced himself from the sentiments of Novecento and sought to reconcile art and industry. Together with the engineers, Eugenio Soncini and Antonio Fornaroli, Ponti enjoyed great success in the industrial sector, securing various commissions throughout Italy. In the 1950s, he gained international fame with the design of the Pirelli Tower in Milan and he was asked to be a part of the urban renewal of Baghdad, collaborating with top architects from around the world. His 1957 book, Amate l’architettura, is considered to be a microcosm of his work —an incredible legacy spanning art, architecture, industrial design, publishing and academia.

Auction Results Gio Ponti

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custom coffee table from Villa Arreaza, Caracas

estimate: $50,000–70,000

result: $170,500

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