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Set of 6 Dining Room Chairs by Carlo Ratti in Plywood and Metal, Italy, 1954

Creator: Carlo Ratti
Offered by: Zeger van Olden

Description
We fully restored this set by adding new small pieces of veneer (where needed) to all the chairs and lacquering them three times. More than 10% of the veneer had to be replaced but hey you want to be circular and sustainable right? The result is a fully up-cycled set of the famous Carlo Ratti dining room chairs. A professional restorer has spent days cutting the right pieces of veneer and putting them back in place. So 90% of the chairs are intact and for the other 10% we gave them the old Levi's 501 look where you can clearly see the multiple different restorations if you look from close by. From a small distance it's hard to see. As a dealer I buy a lot of pieces and very often you can see former reparations in the veneer. When this is nicely done and you see these nice details after a while, I always get a bit delighted by this. It contributes to the value because labor and craftsmanship is something luxurious nowadays and it means that someone has put time and energy into something. It also contributes to the environmental and circular mindset that people have nowadays. Why not making old chairs beautiful again instead of buying new ones? Such a restoration project just feels very right somehow. We hope you feel the same and that you like the end result just as much as we do.

About the chairs themselves: They have some similarities with the Medea chais by Vittorio Nobili because of the curved and bended wood. In the 1950's this became increasingly popular when new methods of production were invented. By steaming the multiplex and putting them in a mold you could bend them in almost any shape. The difference with the Medea chairs are the straight top of the backrest and and the seating and also the slit in the middle seating part where the wood comes together. The slit is held in place by the metal frame. Note that this metal frame is still very original and still has the small metal cross connection at the bottom. Not many sets have this and it's still in very good condition.

Smart shipping: we can detach the seating from the frame making it much cheaper to ship them. Please let me know if you are interested in this because the price is now based on an assembled state.

Note that we still have the Carlo Ratti dining table available as well so you can make a congruent set. The last picture shows this. The table is not part of this lot.

More Information

Documentation:	Documented elsewhere (similar item)
Origin:	Italy
Period:	1950-1979
Materials:	Metal,Plywood
Condition:	Good. Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use. Very nicely restored and newly lacquered wood.
Styles / Movements:	Modern, Mid Century
Incollect Reference #:	748071