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Yasuhiko Itoh

Molteni was brave — one

of the very first — to accept

machines as the tool of

a furniture-making artist,

he enhanced schematic,

essential, rational forms,

for manufacturing on an

industrial scale. He bridged

the chasm that separated

art from the furniture

industry”.

at the ninth Selettiva in 1971.

In the meantime, much had changed

and modern furniture featured at last

at the first Salone del Mobile

tradeshows and in the Molteni&C

collections. In 1968, the company

switched from producing period

furniture to design pieces.

Today the history of this revolution

relives in the Heritage Collection

which presents some of the most

iconic furniture of the noble forefathers

of modern design – such as Yasuhiko

Itoh’s curved wood bookcase.

The designer was from Tokyo, but

he vanished without trace in the

history of design. His bookcase is a

prototype made of steam- curved

wood, a complex process for that time.

After issuing a limited edition run of

100 numbered pieces, this item is now

available as a standard, non-numbered

Piece in curved wood covered in walnut.

Born in 1933, Itoh studied at the

Università of Waseda, he spent several

months in the production department

to work alongside Molteni’s technical

experts. The result is an elegant

and refined piece. The strips of wood

that make up its structure have an iroko

core with a double layer of poplar,

the veneer is teak, and it is protected

by a transparent finish.

1959

Lettera di Angelo

Molteni alla Mostra

Selettiva di Cantù.

Angelo Molteni’s

letter to the Selettiva

di Cantù exhibition.

(Il Mobile, 1979)

The revolution of modern design was

there, in the wings, for several

years, as a prototype, like a dwarf on

the shoulders of a giant – the period

furniture that Industria Mobili Molteni

Angelo successfully produced

and sold. It was in the air, intriguing.

In 1959, the company entered the third

Concorso Internazionale del Mobile

di Cantù with two bookcase designs:

one by Yasuhiko Itoh, a Japanese

designer who won third prize,

and the other by Donato D’Urbino

and Carlo Volonterio, which came

second in the student category.

This time the jury included Luigi

Caccia Dominioni. These were

fortunate experiments, that were

to be repeated at the sixth Selettiva

in 1965, with the furniture of Alberto

Salvati and Ambrogio Tresoldi,

at the seventh, two years later,

with designs by Adelmo Rascaroli,

and again with Werner Blaser

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