My friend "Mid-Century Joe" was here recently delivering my latest purchase, and he casually remarked that he loved "that style of chair," offhandedly pointing in the direction of my Mystery Chair. I told him I'd been trying for weeks to find out something about it, so he shared his thoughts with me.
While we both agreed the chair is definitely vintage, he's pretty sure it's one of many "copycat pieces" mass-produced by small furniture companies in the 50s and 60s. In his opinion, the straight, sharply slanted arms (though not the button back) were inspired by a couple of Gio Ponti designs...his Diamond chair and another chair he designed for the Parco dei Principi in Rome.
After looking at pictures of the two chairs, I think he's very likely right on all counts. My chair may be a little "in the manner of" wannabe that I got cheap, but I still love it, and I'm really happy that I finally know something about the design inspiration. Joe wins this round of the game!
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| My little copycat chair |
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| Gio Ponti chair for Parco dei Principi in Rome spinkfurniture.co.uk |
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| Gio Ponti Diamond chairs phillipsdupury.com |
