Gianfranco Frattini For Bernini Model 540 Teak Italian Modular Shelving System/Bookcase/Room Divider Mid Century Vintage Retro MCM

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Gianfranco Frattini For Bernini Model 540 Teak Italian Modular Shelving System/Bookcase/Room Divider Mid Century Vintage Retro MCM

This teak three bay modular shelving set includes four uprights, six drawers and twenty shelves. This incredible set is based on a design by Gianfranco Frattini for Bernini in Italy during the early 1960s.

The shelves and drawers slot into T shaped supports located at regular intervals on the sides of the uprights. This allows for individual pieces to set at different heights creating different spaces and storage/display designs.

We have taken photos showing one set up, but it’s truly modular by its nature, and it could have hundreds of different variations and combinations based on your needs and desires.

The shelving parts are finished on both sides so can be displayed in the middle of a room.

Without the original ‘Bernini’ stickers still being in place after 75 years, it’s hard to attribute this as an original piece. It very well could be and looks to be authentic, but for now we have to say it’s in the style of Gianfranco Frattini.

Dimensions
Height - 200cm
Width - 195cm
Depth - 43cm

Gianfranco Frattini is widely regarded as a mid-century master of Italian modern design. He was an award-winning architect and designer, and specialized in creating furniture and decor that is both decorative and practical - Frattini’s vintage desks, armchairs, nesting tables and other works are celebrated for their sophisticated merging of function and form.

Born in Padua in 1926, Frattini studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He later apprenticed with his teacher and mentor, Gio Ponti. Through Ponti — arguably the most important figure in 20th century Italian architecture and design - Frattini met many notable modernist designers such as Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier, but an introduction to famed Italian entrepreneur Cesare Cassina would prove incredibly significant in helping launch his career.

During the mid 1950s, Frattini began to collaborate with Cassina’s eponymous company. He designed the brand’s acclaimed leather and walnut Model 849 lounge chair - a winner of the Compasso d’Oro award - the Marema nesting tables and the iconic Sesann collection. The latter, an enduring 1970s suite of impossibly welcoming leather-covered seating, is now produced by Tacchini. In addition to Cassina, Frattini created furniture and lighting for other manufacturers such as Bernini, Arteluce, Artemide, Knoll and more.
While many of his designs incorporate glass, tubular steel and other materials, Frattini loved working with wood. The sculptural Albero bookcase, an innovative floor-to-ceiling structure made in walnut that swings on a 360-degree vertical swivel axis, is a striking example of Frattini’s dedication to traditional woodworking techniques. In the early 1970s, he traveled to Japan with friend and collaborator Pierluigi Ghianda, a master Milanese cabinet maker in order to study the work of artisans in Kyoto. The trip inspired his design of the Kyoto table, a work of solid beech with Canaletto walnut inserts that is part of the permanent collection of the Milan Triennale’s Design Museum. The Kyoto and Albero have been revived by Poltrona Frau.

Frattini’s designs are in the permanent collections of prestigious museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

For any questions please message us on WhatsApp +447590146893 or please call us and follow us on Instagram @relicsofretro

Local delivery can be free depending on distance. National and international delivery is available at an extra cost which we can organise on your behalf.

Collection in person is welcome. We are West of Cambridge in Bourn CB23.

Please message before purchasing to confirm delivery costs.

Please note that vintage furniture may have some slight imperfections, which is to be expected in keeping with its age, as we do not offer returns on items sold.