Italian Brass-Mounted Walnut Writing Desk

Designed by architect, inventor, and entrepreneur Osvaldo Borsani in collaboration with the artist Giovanni Gariboldi, this desk bears all the hallmarks of Borsani’s early design ethos.

With serpentine lines, folding edges, and multiple planar surfaces, the desk boasts a design that is both organic and rational. Its cantilevering “wings” float in space. Its swivel-action chair provides flexible access to its sitter. Furthermore, the complexity of the desk’s cabinetry, its flaming walnut supports, inlaid edges and its brass-mounted feet all reflect a rigorous attention to design.

Borsani’s “Atelier di Varedo,” founded with his brother Fulgenzio, was well known for innovative furniture design. Borsani believed that design was a process involving experimentation and observation of human gesture and behavior patterns. In 1952, the Borsani brothers founded “Tecno,” which is still in existence today.

Comfort, versatility, and ergonomic design were values that would become central tenets of Tecno’s two most legendary designs, both released in 1954; the D70 ARMCHAIR and the P40 Divan (see figure 1 below). With the D70 DIVAN, Borsani incorporated linchpins allowing the seat to rotate around pivots of the lateral metal plates and with the P40 ARMCHAIR, he created a folding structure rotating around an axis. Both became icons of 20th-century design.