Carlo Bugatti

Carlo Bugatti
writing desk in natural wood and ebonized wood, inlaid with partially gilt pewter and bone. Top covered in parchment; a drawer on the band trimmed with tassels. Upper part with central compartment and four drawers arranged on two columns, characterized by a sequence of pinnacles and a small column culminating in a plate enriched by a hanging fabric decoration, cm. 136x70x49 (some lacks).
If there is a family in which the refined and eclectic expression of art has reached its peak, this is the Bugatti family. The founder, Carlo Bugatti (Milan 1856 – Molsheim 1940), made stylistic originality and refinement pushed almost to excess, the cornerstone of his activity as a fine cabinetmaker. His furniture winks at the Art Nouveau style, but they exclusively share the refined taste of phytomorphic elements and the search for increasingly exclusive ornamental motifs. In a Milan that saw the birth and spread of the Futurist movement (the Bugatti family had direct relationships with Marinetti himself), Carlo, and even more than him his son Ettore with the production of cars, shares the movement's provocative attitude. And it is precisely by recognizing himself in this attitude that he is always in search of that wonder that develops in the almost purely architectural structure of his furniture, reworking the Moorish style in a completely personal way, characterizing it with more generally orientalist tendencies and with influences from Japonist art. . Even the search for materials becomes a characteristic underlying this ostentatious refinement which is also and above all manifested in the artisanal technique performed with exquisite skill: precious woods, parchment, bronzes, ivory, tassels, cords, leathers, ensure that the exotic taste rages in all his works. By participating at the International Exhibition of Decorative and Modern Art in Turin in 1902, the undisputed success of Milanese production was decreed, which has become iconic to this day. The compendium of furniture present in this catalog dating between the end of the 19th and the very beginning of the 20th century represents a typical creative expression of the artist's more specifically Italian production which is characterized by having marked the transition from the furnishing culture of the late 19th century to great modernity marked by design which entered production and diffusion in the twentieth century. These are "multi-material" furniture in which models from the most distant places are reflected: birds painted between bamboo branches highlight a marked taste for the Far East.