Giuseppe Pagano Pogatschnig and Gino Levi Montalcini

Private collection, Italy

I mondi di Riccardo Gualino Collezionista e Imprenditore, Musei Reali, Turin, 7 June - 3 November 2019, for the desk model

Il Deco' in Italia L'eleganza della Modernita', Forte di Bard, Bard, 2 December 2022 - 10 April 2023, for the chair and desk models

La Nuova Costruzione Moderna per Uffici, in Torino, sul Corso Vittorio Emanuele architettata da G. Pagano-Pogatschnig, E.G. Levi-Montalcini, Domus, no. 30, June 1930, pp. 72, 80-81, 84, 89, 91, for similar examples

Irene de Guttry and Maria Paola Maino, Il mobile déco italiano, Bari, 1988, pp. 189-190, for similar examples

Alberto Bassi and Laura Castagno, Giuseppe Pagano, Bari, 1994, p. 50, for a similar example

Emilio Garda, Il Buxus, Storia di un materiale autarchico fra arte e tecnologia, Venice, 2000, pp. 58-59

Daniela Bosia, Il Buxus: un material 'moderno', Milano, 2005, pp. 64, 66

Emilio Garda, I materiali artificiali dell'invenzione, Domus, no. 839, July/August 2001, p. 12, for the chair and a similar example of the desk

Francesco Parisi, Il Deco in Italia L'eleganza della Modernita', Cinisello Balsamo, 2022, p. 203

Rare for its completeness this desk, chair and wastebasket set designed by Giuseppe Pagano Pogatschnig and Gino Levi Montalcini is part of one of the most ambitious architectural projects of the first half of the 20th century.

In June 1930 Domus magazine published a special issue completely dedicated to the new office building of industrialist and financier Riccardo Gualino. The new building featured extremely innovative design solutions, horizontal windows, ultra-modern fixtures, and above all, perfectly rational furnishings consisting of no less than 67 different types of furniture, from chairs for ushers to armchairs for the boardroom, furniture for typewriters and shelves for telephones.

To enable the creation of furniture with sharp edges but resistant to the heavy use, typical of a work environment, instead of the traditional veneer, they used Buxus as upholstery: an innovative cellulose-based material produced by Giacomo Bosso paper mills.

Produced in a variety of colors, extremely durable and easy to work with, Buxus "wrapped" the furniture designed by Pagano and Montalcini, allowing the creation of furniture that could not have been built using traditional techniques. In fact, to make them, the designers made use of the sophisticated equipment and skilled workers of FIP, Fabbrica Italiana Pianoforti, a company owned by Gualino himself, led by Pietro Boggetto. The success of these furnishings made them true archetypes capable of positively influencing all subsequent production of furniture for offices and beyond.