Dining suite
Oak, chestnut and linoleum, 1953, comprising of:
Large dining table: 79 x 160 x 64 cm.
Small dining table: 79 x 99.5 x 89.5 cm.
Ten dining chairs, each: 94 x 38 x 45 cm.
Estimate: £500,000 – 700,000. (Click on image to enlarge).
A collection of furnishings from Casa Cattaneo designed by Carlo Mollino – the most sought-after 20th century Italian designer – will feature at Christie’s sale of 20th Century Decorative Art & Design next October 23. Constructed on the foothills of the Alps, and benefitting from majestic views over Lake Maggiore, the Casa Cattaneo endures as a unique and complete surviving expression of Carlo Mollino’s distinctive architecture and interior design. Casa Cattaneo is the only private villa ever designed by Mollino and is one of very few of his structures to remain intact. Comprising 10 lots the collection is expected to realise in excess of £700,000.
From the late 1940’s to the mid 1950’s Carlo Mollino (1905-1973) produced a spectacular portfolio of works and projects including domestic commissions, hotel interiors and commercial developments. In the ’50’s and ’60’s he turned increasingly to technical projects, designing racetracks for cars, filling stations and aircraft hangers. He held various technical patents and designed cars. Remarkably little physical evidence for such a versatile creator survives. Only a dozen of his buildings remain, most have been altered, abandoned or changed beyond recognition and furniture was produced in limited quantities for specific commissions. Christie’s hold the auction record for a work by Mollino. A unique oak, glass and wood table designed for Casa Orengo in 1949 sold for $3.8 million in New York in 2005.
Casa Cattaneo, overlooking Lake Maggiore.
Casa Cattaneo fireplace. (Click on image to enlarge).