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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

And the winner of this round of "Name That Designer" is...

A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of a chair I'd bought in Austin and asked if any of you had information or ideas about it. Several of you said you were as clueless as I was.

My friend "Mid-Century Joe" was here recently delivering my latest purchase, and he casually remarked that he loved "that style of chair," offhandedly pointing in the direction of my Mystery Chair. I told him I'd been trying for weeks to find out something about it, so he shared his thoughts with me.

While we both agreed the chair is definitely vintage, he's pretty sure it's one of many "copycat pieces" mass-produced by small furniture companies in the 50s and 60s. In his opinion, the straight, sharply slanted arms (though not the button back) were inspired by a couple of Gio Ponti designs...his Diamond chair and another chair he designed for the Parco dei Principi in Rome.

After looking at pictures of the two chairs, I think he's very likely right on all counts. My chair may be a little  "in the manner of" wannabe that I got cheap, but I still love it, and I'm really happy that I finally know something about the design inspiration.  Joe wins this round of the game!

My little copycat chair
Gio Ponti chair for Parco dei Principi in Rome
spinkfurniture.co.uk
Gio Ponti Diamond chairs
phillipsdupury.com

3 comments:

  1. Whatever it is, it's one fabulous chair!

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  2. Thanks...I really like the chair. And I don't mind that it's a knock-off, now that I know the furniture manufacturers who stole the idea had good taste. :)

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