1930s Rationalist Italian Armchairs

Original 1930's rationalist pair of armchairs attributed to Columbus .

Columbus was a metal tube furniture company the from the early ' 30s created by Angelo Luigi Colombo ,furnitures were drawn by the technical facilities and especially by some of most important Italian architects from P.Bottoni to G. Pagano

The story of Columbus is an important one for the history of Italian design, and one that it has been possible to preserve and reconstruct thanks to the meritorious efforts of Antonio Colombo, Angelo Luigi’s son. An enlightened entrepreneur (at the head of another company too, Cinelli, an Italian leader in the production of bicycles renowned for its research, innovation and design) who decided to set up the Archivio Columbus, promoting studies, publications (such as the volume Flessibili splendori. Il mobile in tubolare metallico. Il caso Columbus; Electa, 1998) and other initiatives like exhibitions, such as the ones that will be staged this year, which marks the centenary of the founding of the company by his father. The Archivio Columbus is a unique example at an international level of a heritage conserved over time. It contains hundreds of original pieces of furniture, plans and drawings, catalogues and advertisements for itself and its competitors, wooden moulds for production and documents. A pioneering company archive, active since the mid-nineties, that attests clearly to the characteristic nature of progressive entrepreneurship in Italy, a union of capacity for research and innovation, dialogue with the world of design and an appropriate and visionary cultural dimension.