Lot 287
ETTORE SOTTSASS (ITALIAN 1917–2007) FOR MEMPHIS §
'CARLTON' BOOKCASE, DESIGNED 1981
Auction: MODERN MADE | Lots 1 - 422 | Fri 01 May at 10am
Description
numbered 19, with MEMPHIS / MADE IN ITALY / MILANO / ETTORE SOTTSASS / 1981 / NO 19 metal tag (to reverse), plastic laminated wood
Dimensions
196cm high, 190.5cm wide, 40cm deep (77 1/8in high, 75in wide, 15 ¾in deep)
Footnote
Literature:
Gramigna, Giuliana, Repertorio Del Design Italiano 1950-2000, Vol. 2, Umberto Allemandi & C., Turin, 2003, p.300.
This is a rare example from the original numbered edition.
Renzo Brugola and Ettore Sottsass met in the Jamaica bar in Brera. There, writers, artists, and artisans drank and played cards together and a lifelong friendship formed between designer and cabinetmaker. Sottsass designed Brugola's workshop in Lissone where Bregola fabricated all Sottsass prototypes.
Brugola, the man who realised Sottsass ideas, also became one of the four founders of Memphis Milano, Sottsass' biggest idea. Often just sketches - expressive, colourful, playful; postmodern was a rejection of functionalism - Brugola turned the Memphis group's ideas into producible designs. In that sense he rationalised the emotive - the irrational.
It was presumed Memphis production would be small, hence the high quality of the first pieces - and their hand-stamped numbering. This Carlton is the 19th made and was presumably in Sottsass's possession between its 1981 manufacture and installation in the Esprit showroom, Dussledorf, which he designed and furnished in 1985, the year he left Memphis.
Aside from the numbering, other features distinguish these first Carltons. The drawers are dovetailed wood and open on runners rather than the wheels and sliders of later iterations. The top box lacks the later visible joint between top and side. Lastly, the base of the cabinet is empty, the plywood interior black painted; a nice detail - Brugola's - is the unseen under edges are faced with mitred Bacterium laminate.
This Carlton bookcase is from the initial run of the defining piece of post-modernism. It was produced by the same master maker who had fabricated all Sottsass prototypes, including the Commode Column, and comes from one of Sottsass most important architectural commissions, the European headquarters of Esprit.
