Piero Fornasetti

Private Collection, Chicago
Acquired from the above by the present owner, mid-1990s

Patrick Mauriès, Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams, London, 1991, pp. 100-101
Brigitte Fitoussi, Piero Fornasetti: A Conversation Between Philippe Starck and Barnaba Fornasetti, Paris, 2005, pp. 23-24
Barnaba Fornasetti, Fornasetti: The Complete Universe, New York, 2016, p. 349

Piero Fornasetti's design for his iconic "Architettura" Trumeau was based off of a 1949 model created by Gio Ponti. Originally intended to be a unique piece, Ponti produced a limited edition of four units in the early 1950s. Fornasetti's "Architettura" Trumeau marked the beginning of a collaboration with Ponti and is the first of a series of desk-cabinets with various architectural themes. The present version with a square base was designed in 1953. During the 1950s and 1960s, about forty units were designed, and only a few in the 1970s. In the 1980s, about ten examples were reissued in an unnumbered edition. 

Fornasetti's reinterpretation of Ponti's form retained the original overall structure with a few modifications, namely simplified decorations extended to the interior, a rectangular base and a linear cabinet top. The combination of neoclassical themes and motifs with primary and geometric shapes provides a great introduction to quintessential Fornasettian style, and to the boundless imaginative abilities and graphic strength of its maker. The result is a resolutely modern and more functional design, which can be used both as a desk and as a cabinet.