Freestanding Valet featuring drawers, shelves, and a coat rack, Italy, 1950s.

A mobile valet stand featuring drawers, shelves, and a coat rack, crafted from walnut wood, glass, and brass, Italian manufacturing from the 1950s.

Essential for an entryway and highly useful in a walk-in closet, this valet stand is a rare piece of furniture designed for a specific client. Two intersecting supports hold a storage compartment equipped with drawers and a glass shelf on top. A brass rod allows for easy hanging of jackets and coats.

This piece is a clear expression of Italian design from the 1950s, with numerous aesthetic references to the great designers of the era who revolutionized architecture and interior decoration. They moved away from the rationalist style, which by the 1940s had become stale, towards a still-nascent 1950s style that joyously embraced international influences, from Sweden to the United States. During this period, from buildings to objects, the prevailing philosophy was that function should define form, freeing artisans and designers from the obligation to constantly replicate classical motifs of the past, such as Renaissance ornaments or Baroque scrolls. These elements, lavishly applied to intricately carved bed frames or chair backs, had cluttered middle-class homes like lingering ghosts from the past.

This piece, professionally restored and refinished, stands apart from the described trend: it has no doors, panels, or other artifices intended to conceal its true function or echo bygone artistic grandeur. It is exactly what it appears to be: a coat stand proud of its practical purpose.

Dimensions:
Without glass shelf: 57.5w x 47.5d x 148h cm
With glass shelf: 88.5w x 47.5d x 148.5h cm