Between the end of the 19th century and the 1930s, chairs, rocking chairs, sofas and other furniture created by the Antonio Volpe company in Udine were erroneously attributed to the most famous Austrian producers of the period, such as Gebrüder Thonet or Jacob & Josef Kohn.
In actual fact, the beauty, the perfection and the originality of the models, constructed with the steam-bent wood furniture technique, derived from the creative flair of a small Friuli manufacturer. Founded in the early 1880s to produce common chairs, the company later perfected its production and enriched its catalogue, enabling it to compete with the elegant designs of manufacturers operating on the other side of the Alps. The wartime events of the 20th century, combined with family vicissitudes, later wiped out the traces and the memory of this experience, which is reconstructed for the first time in this volume.
This books presents the most iconic models created by Antonio Volpe – some of which are in the most prestigious international museum collections – and includes catalogues from 1900, 1922 and 1939, thus shedding light on an important yet unknown chapter of design history.
Design. Catalogue Raisonné 1936-1960
Archi-designer
