Prototype Table/Chairs (Model Nos. 230/1

This important work comes from a time when many designers, including Joe Colombo (lots 40-41) and Verner Panton (lot 45), were experimenting with plastic utopias, controlled environments and system furniture. The lot offered here is a developmental prototype with the designer's notations as the piece evolved towards production. This prototype was produced in hand-laid fiberglass and differs from the small number of production examples in various aspects. The production models have shallower central wells, are made of polyurethane, and have metal clips to fasten the leaves together (visible in Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, p. 122, image on the right). Furthermore, the seat spring-mechanism on the lot offered here is hand-made.
The 230/1/2 was put into a limited production of ten models, only three of which were produced with chairs. The design was presented at Euro Domus and the Salon de Mobile in 1970. It was also featured in the 1971 exhibition "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape" on the basis of its more flexible patterns of use and arrangement, encouraging more informal behavior in the home. The table's central cylinder opens to become a storage area for the folding chairs, and the six trays (with molded place-setting areas) originally had a trolley for their storage.

Fiberglass, wood, foam
the table: 29 1/2 in. (75 cm) high
59 in. (150 cm) diameter
the chair: 31 1/2 in. (80 cm) high

Illustrated:
Emilio Ambasz, ed., Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, New York, 1972, p. 122 (left-hand image)

Literature:
Giuliana Gramigna, 1950/1980 Repertorio, Milan, 1985, p. 327