Design 
6 June 2023
Design 
106

Carlo Mollino

Lattes chair

Apelli & Varesio
Italy, 1951
bent plywood, ash, painted wood, brass, rubber 37 h × 15 w × 18 d in (94 × 38 × 46 cm)
estimate: $75,000–100,000
result: $226,800
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This chair was commissioned by Mario Lattes for the Lattes publishing house offices in Turin. Six chairs were manufactured in four different models, and this is the only surviving example. The present lot is registered in the library of the Museo Casa Mollino, Turin, as number CM 358-1.
provenance: The Artist | Acquired from the previous in 1954, Private Collection, Milan | Sotheby's, New York, Important Design, 14 December 2016, Lot 314 | Important East Coast Collection
exhibited: Carlo Mollino: Maniera Moderna, 16 September 2011 - 8 January 2012, Haus der Kunst, Munich
literature: The Furniture of Carlo Mollino, Ferrari and Ferrari, pg. 181 illustrates this example Carlo Mollino: Plywood, 1951, Ferrari and Ferrari, unpaginated illustrates this example Domus, no. 270, May 1952, pg. 53 illustrates this example Domus, no. 294, May 1954, pg. 34 illustrates this example Carlo Mollino: Maniera Moderna, Haus der Kunst, Munich exhibition catalog, pg. 305 illustrates this example

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A Rare and Important Chair by Carlo Mollino

By Napoleone Ferrari

The present chair was manufactured in 1951 for the Lattes publishing house offices in Turin. It is the only one surviving example of a set of chairs designed by Carlo Mollino between 1950-1951 developing the same idea.

Fig. 1: This profile photo shows the perfect adherence of the chair to the human body.

The structure of the chair is conceived as a sitting machine: the plywood seat and back are ergonomically shaped to fit the human body (fig. 1). They both rest on rubber pads that function as shock absorbers also allowing the asymmetrical distribution of the weight on the left and right side of the chair. The two long cuts in the seat and back further allows the same possibility of asymmetrical body movement. The plywood back tilts to accommodate the movement of the human spine and is fixed to the back legs which are slightly flexible enhancing this possibility.

The chair is rationally made up of separate elements that can be independently manufactured and then mounted using polished brass nuts and bolts and black wooden inserts. This particular wooden joint devised by Mollino allows an easy assembly only by pressure without using glue or nails.

Mollino designed the parts of the chairs in contact with the human body shaping them organically and beautifully while the supporting structure of the chair and its front legs are treated as straight modernist elements. This hybrid design creates by contrast a dynamic tension, visual and conceptual (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Conceptually speaking the chair’s back is organically designed to fit the human body while its structure and front legs are linearly shaped to relate to a working machine.

The chair is apparently simple while a number of subtle details makes it a very refined and elegant design (for example the varying section of the wood elements of the legs and cross-structure, the brass caps at the bottom of the legs, the connection between the different elements always kept distinct from each other).

Fig. 3: Publication of the Mollino furniture for the Italy at Work exhibition in House & Garden, December 1950.

Four chairs of this type were originally made for the Italy at Work exhibition touring eleven US museums in 1950 (fig. 3). Two other variants were designed immediately afterwards to make more perfect this idea and in August 1951 the present chair was designed for Lattes as the last and more perfect evolution of this series but never actually produced for those offices (these three different models being published in Domus magazine).

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Furniture for the Lattes publishing house offices featured in Domus May 1952.

Carlo Mollino 1905–1973

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As a child, Carlo Mollino was smitten by the engineering work of his father and his infatuation led him to the study of constructional engineering and architecture at the University of Turin. After graduating, Mollino worked at his father’s studio before founding his own architectural and interior design practice run out of the same space. He built several famed structures including the Società Ippica Torinese (1937-40, now destroyed), Casa del Sole, Cervinia (1947-54) and the Teatro Regio Torino (1965-73) as well as several private homes and apartments.

Aside from architecture and interior design, Mollino possessed a love of race cars; he created sweptback cars for himself to race and even set a record at Le Mans that remained unbroken for two years. An expert skier obsessed with aerodynamics and clean lines, Mollino wrote a book on the subject. Not only did he love speed and the sleek bodies of automobiles but the voluptuous curves of the female form inspired a series of erotic photographs featuring nude models on and around his own furniture designs. The idealized female form and aerodynamics motivated his design aesthetic, curved backs, slim ankles, and hourglass shapes abound in his furniture designs. Moving away from the austerity of the Modernist movement, Mollino imbued his furniture with a sense of the feminine and the surreal.

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