Gio Ponti: how to recognise his pieces

Architect of the Pirelli Tower, founder of Domus in 1928, art director of Richard-Ginori in the 1920s: Gio Ponti drew everything, from porcelain to the skyscraper. That is what makes his furniture so often merely "attributed".

The major pieces

The Superleggera (Cassina, 1957), 1.7 kg of ash and caning, the culmination of the Leggera of 1951. The Distex armchair (Cassina, 1953), now reissued by Molteni under the name D.153.1. The furniture for the American firm Singer & Sons in the early 1950s, in walnut. The Richard-Ginori porcelain from 1923 to 1930, reissued by Ginori 1735. And the Villa Planchart in Caracas, to which we devoted an Open House.

The marks

Slender, tapered legs, often set at an angle, finished with a brass shoe. Diamond points, on fronts as on handles. Brass everywhere. Very low backs, chairs that seem to lean forward.

The editors, the traps

Cassina makes the Superleggera, around €2,000 new, and Molteni has taken up part of the body of work in its Heritage collection. On the vintage market, a period Superleggera changes hands for anything from a few hundred to a little over a thousand euros depending on the state of the caning, an original Distex for several thousand. The trap is the "in the manner of Ponti": 1950s Italy produced thousands of pieces with tapered legs. Without a Cassina or Singer mark, or documented provenance, it is a fine Italian piece, not a Ponti.

Spotted a tapered-leg piece somewhere? Scan it on Beyit: attribution, edition, value.