Mid Century Modern industrial desk by Osvaldo Borsani for Tecno

Model T333 desk produced in 1975 from a design by Osvaldo Borsani and Eugenio Geri and manufctured by Tecno. The top is black lacquered walnut with an inset area of black leather. There are two minimal slim drawers, perfect for storage of pens etc and polished cast aluminium legs. with black trim. Manufacturer's label to side.
This large and impressive desk with its minimal, sophisticated design would work well in both a modern or contemporary home.
Literature: Giam Piero Bosoni, T
Tecno L'eleganza discreta della tecnico, was established in 1953 the twin brothers Osvaldo and Fulgenzio Borsani with the goal of developing their father’s furniture company, Arredamenti Borsani, using the industrial process for the manufacturing of modern furniture. The history of the company goes back to the early 1920s, when woodworker and upholsterer Gaetano Borsani founded Atelier Borsani Varedo (later called Arredamenti Borsani Varedo) in Varedo, Italy.
In spite of Arredamenti Borsani’s traditional approach, Osvaldo, designed the modernist Casa Minima furniture collection, while still attending architecture school at Accademia di Brera, and he won the silver medal at the V Triennale di Milano in 1933. Osvaldo’s ongoing involvement at the atelier continued to grow as he designed and built modernist furniture for the wealthy Milanese society.
In 1954, a year after Tecno’s founding, the company unveiled its first factory-produced collection of sofas, chairs and tables and received accolades at the X Triennale di Milano. That same year, Osvaldo created the adjustable D70 sofa bed, which became an instant commercial success, and in 1956 he launched the P40 lounge chair, an adjustable reclining chair with a built-in footrest. We have an example of this chair in stock. Both the D70 sofa bed and the P40 lounge chair symbolized a golden age of Italian modernist design.
After the company’s first big commission to design office furniture for Eni, an Italian oil and gas company, Tecno became internationally known for designs based on advanced technology. At the XIV Triennale di Milano in 1968, Osvaldo, in collaboration with Eugenio Gerli, introduced the revolutionary modular Graphis office system. This modular office furniture allowed for numerous customizable combinations and became a long-lasting commercial success for Tecno’s corporate clients.

In 1970, Osvaldo’s son-in-law Marco Fantoni took a larger role in the company, and Tecno created the Centro Progetti Tecno as an in-house team dedicated to the idea “that future designs should be presented as group creations, with a clear and easily identifiable communication style.” This enterprise-centric approach resulted in Tecno’s launch of the Modus office chair, which won the SMAU Torino prize in 1973 and the Compasso d’Oro in 1984; the Waiting System, a modular table and seating system, in 1983; and the rebranding of Alitalia (Italian national airline of the time) in the 1984.

Since 2010, Tecno has been led by Giuliano Masconi and has continued bringing to market new furniture designs, partnered with a large roster of Italian and international architects and designers to create broad and custom-based furnishing solutions for the office, public, and residential sectors. On March 2017, Tecno announced that it would become the majority shareholder of Italian furniture manufacturer Zanotta as a way to continue expanding its international reach and its product line.

Today, many Tecno products can be found in the collections of leading museums around the world such as Triennale di Milano, Pompidou Centre in Paris, MoMA in New York City, Neue Sammlung in Monaco, Museum of Decorative Arts in Montreal, and Victoria and Albert in London