Leggera Chair (Model 646)
Design Date 1951
Designer Gio Ponti (1891–1979, Italian)
Manufacturer Cassina SpA (1927–present), Milan, Italy
Media ash wood with ebony finish with a cellophane rush seat
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. His first attempt to create a light weight chair is seen here in his Leggera Chair. A few years later in 1957 he achieved his nearly decade-long dream with the Superleggera Chair, a chair weighing just 3.10 pounds. The Leggera and Superleggera look very similar, but have a few subtle differences in the shape of the legs. The Superleggera has rounded triangles at the tops of the legs and the Leggera has rounded squares.
ON VIEW in Modern Gallery 7
Markings Cassina label inside legs
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
Accession Number 2004.1948
