Five overlooked Italian vintage pieces
In the vintage furniture market, attention gathers around a handful of very well-known models: Ducaroy's Togo, the Panton chair, the Eames lounge chair, Florence Knoll's sofa. That does not make them overpriced. They are reissued and plentiful, and current supply limits the gap between an old example and a recent one. Other models, by designers of the first rank, sell at more moderate prices because the wider public knows them less well than the specialist literature does. The five covered here are among them. We look at their design, their manufacturer and their scarcity, without predicting anything about their prices.
What we mean by "overlooked"
A piece is overlooked when there is a clear gap between the standing design history gives it (museums, monographs, exhibitions) and the demand it meets on the second-hand market. The gap can narrow after a retrospective, a public sale that sets a reference price, or regular coverage in the specialist press, but nothing guarantees that it will. Conversely, a piece that is widely covered and produced in large numbers stays bounded by the price of its reissue. The five pieces below share a profile: a recognised designer, a serious historic manufacturer, limited or interrupted production, a place in public collections, and demand that is still modest.
The five pieces
Cini Boeri, Strips, Arflex (1968). The Strips sofa, designed by Cini Boeri for Arflex, received the Compasso d'Oro in 1979. It has no wooden frame: it is a block of foam entirely sheathed in a zipped cover, meant to be washed, removed and shipped flat. It is one of the first industrial sofas conceived as a textile object. Boeri was long read through her male contemporaries, and the reassessment of her work is recent. Arflex examples from the 1970s, in their original cover or with a documented re-cover, remain affordable given their importance.
Anna Castelli Ferrieri, Componibili, Kartell (1967). Componibili are among the most copied storage pieces in industrial design. Kartell examples made before the 2000s differ from current production in the quality of the ABS, a denser matt finish and colours that have since been discontinued. Castelli Ferrieri played a central part in Kartell's research, where she oversaw the arrival of ABS and polypropylene in furniture. Older pieces can be recognised by their moulded marks and the particular patina of aged polymers, and their prices still reflect little of that history.
Joe Colombo, Universale, Kartell (1967). Often described as the first chair injection-moulded entirely in ABS and produced in series, the Universale marks Italian design's turn to plastic. Joe Colombo, who died young in 1971, left a short and very coherent body of work. Demand for Colombo centres on his lighting and on the Boby trolley; the Universale in its original Kartell edition, in discontinued colours, remains affordable. Its polypropylene reissue muddies the picture: a buyer who can find the model new tends to pass over the old one.
Tobia Scarpa, Soriana, Cassina (1969). Made as an armchair and a sofa, the Soriana received the Compasso d'Oro in 1970. Its construction rests on a simple idea: the upholstery is not stretched over a frame but held by an external chromed-steel armature that closes the silhouette. Tobia Scarpa, son of Carlo Scarpa, is among the important Venetian designers of the postwar years. Cassina stopped producing the Soriana for several decades, which makes older examples relatively scarce. A recent reissue has brought the model back into view without, so far, lifting vintage prices.
Gabriella Crespi, Z bar, Plurimi series (1970s). Crespi is a case apart. Her work, between art furniture and utilitarian object, was made in very small runs, often signed and numbered. The Plurimi series, which includes the Z bar, brings together transformable pieces in brass and bamboo. The exhibition the Palazzo Reale in Milan devoted to her in 2011 brought her work beyond specialist circles, but signed pieces in good condition remain less sought after than those of better-known Italians such as Ponti or Sottsass. Production is limited and archives exist, which makes authentication easier.
These five pieces have four things in common: design quality recognised by a Compasso d'Oro, a retrospective or a museum collection; a historic manufacturer (Arflex, Kartell, Cassina, Crespi's workshops); relative scarcity due to interrupted or limited production, unlike the Togo or the Panton, made continuously for fifty years; and recent recognition that the wider public has not yet followed.
Sources
The biographical and technical details rest on public sources: monographs, the online archives of Arflex, Kartell (Kartell Museo, in Noviglio) and Cassina, and the Gabriella Crespi archive. For prices, the reference auction houses remain Phillips, Wright (Chicago), Christie's, Piasa and Artcurial. The ADI in Milan keeps the public register of Compasso d'Oro winners. We quote no figures: prices seen over the last eighteen months remain uneven, and a single sale does not make a trend. For our reading of prices over a longer period, see how valuations have moved since 2015.
When one of these pieces comes through LAPIERRE MARKET, we state its edition and its origin where known, photograph the markings and flag any replaced parts. If you are looking for one in particular, write to us with your criteria.
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