Superleggera Chair (Model 699)
Design Date 1957
Designer Gio Ponti (1891–1979, Italian)
Manufacturer Cassina SpA (1927–present), Milan, Italy
Media ash wood with ebony finish with a seat of woven cane
Dimensions 32-1/2 x 16-3/4 x 18-1/2 inches
Gio Ponti set out to design and manufacture a chair that was both light and lived up to the standards of the best Italian manufacturers. He achieved his nearly decade-long dream in 1957 with the Superleggera Chair, a chair weighing just 3.10 pounds. The Superleggera (“beyond light”) has a solid ash wood frame joined with dowel joints and four legs that taper downwards with a maximum diameter of about ¾ inches. The frame was mass-produced in the Cassina factory, but the seat was hand-woven by female chair weavers living in the Chiavari hinterlands, combining industrial production with local artisans to complete the masterpiece.
ON VIEW in Modern Gallery 7
Markings Cassina label inside legs
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
Accession Number 2004.1948
