You can still find them antiques. The Orgue vase, for example, which is now called 7 Tubi. The collectible object was auctioned in 2019 for 1,560 euros; it was estimated at 800 to 1,200 euros. But the name of the designer still resonates today, as does that of the manufacturer: Gio Ponti and Christofle. The two came together almost 100 years ago, in 1926. The Orfèvrerie Christofle, based in Paris, had long been famous for its silverware; it was a purveyor to the court of not only French emperors and Russian tsars, but also the outfitter of the Orient Express, among others. Gio Ponti, on the other hand, was a largely unknown Italian architect who only opened his first office in Milan in 1927.
Christofle was a stroke of luck for Ponti. He had experienced the First World War as a soldier, so it was not until 1921, at the age of almost 30, that he was able to complete his architecture studies at the Polytechnic in Milan. But he didn’t want to be an architect alone, he also wanted to be a designer. A term that basically didn’t exist back then. Ponti was a shaper and designer, including of industrially manufactured products.
He teamed up with masters in his field
He first tried his hand at silver tableware and cutlery, and it was only later that he created playful works for Christofle, some of which seemed more decorative than functional. He teamed up with masters of their craft who implemented Ponti’s drawings for him in workshops. The silver and goldsmith Lino Sabattini created vases like the Orgue mentioned above, as well as a tray and small animal sculptures, most of which were silver-plated. Today they are rarely found.
His grandson Salvatore Licitra is now responsible for Ponti’s legacy. A few years ago, together with the Italian furniture brand Molteni & C, he began searching the archive for designs that were no longer awarded or in production. A first series of pieces of furniture was presented as La collezione at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2012, with the studio Cerri & Associati by Pierluigi Cerri and Alessandro Colombo as the artistic director. The pieces in the so-called Molteni & C Heritage Collection were created between 1935 and the 1970s; Gio Ponti himself died in 1979 at the age of 87.
A first Objects Collection is now being released, eight works by Gio Ponti, which are not made of silver or silver-plated, but are made of stainless steel, wood and clay. The new edition includes a tray with six corners, the shape of which is reminiscent of Ponti’s most famous building, the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan, which also tapers to a point on the sides. The name of the tray: Architettura. The 7 Tubi vase consists of seven tubes that together form a sculptural unit. And Pompei, with its three feet, is also made up of seven tubes that are connected to each other via a rectangular plate. What is reminiscent of organ pipes is intended for flowers or candles.
The hand with 6 fingers
The other objects are not to be understood as purely decorative either – for Ponti, the apartment was a stage on which protagonists should play. For example with his Bottiglie, statuettes made of solid wood in the shape of a bottle. His animal figures are also striking, folded like in origami, but not from a sheet of paper, but from a thin stainless steel plate. There is the horse Cavallo and the pigeon Colombo, each in two sizes.
La Mano, the hand, has its own story. It only exists because Gio Ponti scribbled it in a letter to Lino Sabattini, as a freehand sketch. Sabattini nevertheless formed a hand with the fingers stretched upwards. Not five, but six, just as Ponti had drawn them. Ponti’s grandson Salvatore Licitra calls it “an impossible hand,” which he sees as “a homage to the imagination.” Possibly Ponti also knew the Iron Hand of Götz von Berlichingen. In any case, it is also suitable as a jewelry stand.
