Architect and designer Cesare Lacca is renowned for the modernist furniture he created during the 1950s. Made with materials like teak, glass and brass, his work continues to command great interest from mid-century modern collectors. His pieces have recently found their way onto some of the 21st century’s most trendy television and movie sets.
Lacca was born in Naples, Italy, in 1929. Like many Italian designers in the 20th century, he moved to Milan after World War II to launch his career. At the age of 20, he was selected by a group of American curators for inclusion in the 1951 landmark exhibition “Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today” at the Art Institute of Chicago. It showcased Italian designers who had embraced modernist principles and rejuvenated traditional Italian crafts, like Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini and Gio Ponti.
Lacca designed a dizzying array of tea carts and serving trolleys across his career, including magazine racks and coffee tables. Lacca’s most well-known piece is a tea cart — most commonly used as a bar cart — that Cassina manufactured. It features beautifully sculpted beech, cedar, teak and walnut with brass details, a glass tabletop and a removable glass tray.
This Lacca cart was featured as Don Draper’s office bar in his Manhattan advertising agency on several episodes of the wildly popular television show Mad Men, reinvigorating the interest of collectors. Several other Lacca pieces have been part of the set decorations in the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the movie Being the Ricardos.
On 1stDibs, find Cesare Lacca tables, racks and stands, seating and more.
20th Century, Angelo Mangiarotti Bronze and Wooden Coffee Table
By Angelo Mangiarotti
Located in Torino, Piemonte
Angelo Mangiarotti was an Italian architect and industrial designer, born in Milan in 1921. He studied architecture at the Politecnico in Milan and graduated in 1948. His designs wer...
Bronze
20th Century, Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte Coffee Table, 1950s
By Fontana Arte, Pietro Chiesa
Located in Torino, Piemonte
After an apprenticeship with the glassmaker Giannotti Pietro Chiesa opened his own glass workshop in 1921. In the early 1920s he participated in the Monza Biennale, the Venice Bienna...
Glass, Wood
Gio Ponti Wooden with Marble Top Coffee Table 50s
By Gio Ponti
Located in Torino, Piemonte
An eclectic personality, from his early days he was active in the fields of architecture, painting, graphics and set design. He graduated in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic i...
Marble
20th Century, Giuseppe Pagano and Gino Maggioni Coffee Table mod. Lamellare
By Giuseppe Pagano Pogatschnig, Gino Maggioni
Located in Torino, Piemonte
Giuseppe Pagano was an Italian architect and designer, notable for his involvement in the movement of rationalist architecture in Italy up to the end of the Second World War. He desi...
Wood
20th Century, Angelo Mangiarotti Wooden and Brass Coffee Table
By La Sorgente Dei Mobili, Angelo Mangiarotti
Located in Torino, Piemonte
Angelo Mangiarotti was an Italian architect and industrial designer, born in Milan in 1921. He studied architecture at the Politecnico in Milan and graduated in 1948. His designs wer...
Brass
20th Century Fontana Arte Coffee Table Model 2461 in Wood and Glass
By Fontana Arte
Located in Torino, Piemonte
Low table or coffee table model number 2461 designed by Fontana Arte in 1960s. The table has a very modern and particular structure totally in wood, where the main theme is the celeb...
Glass, Wood
Mid Century Modern Solid Teak Coffee Table With Sculptural Twisted Legs, c1960s
Located in Chino Hills, CA
A beautifully crafted example of mid-century modern design, this vintage 1960s solid teak coffee table showcases exceptional sculptural detail and warm natural materials. The round t...
Teak
Mid-Century Italian Wooden coffee table, attr. to Melchiorre Bega, Italy
By Melchiorre Bega
Located in Argelato, BO
Mid-Century wooden side table attributed to Melchiorre Bega, Italy A rare and highly original side table, produced and designed in Italy in the 1950s, will add style and refinement ...
Glass, Wood
Illum Wikkelso Teak Coffee Table
By Illum Wikkelsø
Located in New York, NY
Danish designed T118 teak coffee table with glass top designed by Illum Wikkelso. A sculptural modern design with a natural wood finish . The glass gracefully floats on top .
Glass, Teak
Mid-Century Sculptural Wooden Coffee Table, Italy, 1950s
By Augusto Romano
Located in Argelato, BO
This sculptural mid-century Italian coffee table evokes the form of a spider, with its solid wood base opening into multiple sinuous, branching legs, curved and tapered like articula...
Glass, Wood
Roberto Aloi wooden coffee table
By Roberto Aloy
Located in Milano, IT
COD-XX5 Roberto Aloi (1897-1981) Wooden coffee table with hand-carved geometric design and iron structure. Italian manufacture, ca. 1960. diam 85 h 45 cm
Metal
Italian mid-century modern rectangular coffee table in wood, 1950s
Located in MIlano, IT
Italian mid-century modern rectangular coffee table in wood, 1950s Coffee table with rectangular top with rounded corners, entirely in dark wood. The profile of the top is finished w...
Wood
