1919 Ultime Notizie Armchair

Overview

The 1919 Ultime Notizie armchair belongs to the capsule collection by Poltrona Frau and Fornasetti. It takes the form of the 1919 bergère, a comfortable armchair of large proportions covered by hand in leather, and covers it in Pelle Frau leather printed with Fornasetti's Ultime notizie (breaking news) decoration: a trompe-l'œil of butterflies fluttering over a carpet of newspaper clippings. The SKU on the page is 5PF0014500001-10007.

Image source: Poltrona Frau — 1919 Ultime Notizie Armchair · © Poltrona Frau and the respective rights holders. Quoted to accompany INTEBEE's independent design commentary and research. · View official product page ↗ · Image use & copyright policy

Construction

The frame is seasoned solid beech. On the sheet the seat sits on hand-tied biconical steel springs over jute belts and is padded with rubberised horsehair, while the back and arms get hand-shaped vegetable horsehair and the cushion is goose down. The back has a handmade capitonné design and leather-covered tacks along its outer face. The feet are beech stained dark walnut, and brass wheels sit under the front feet.

Specifications

• Armchair, 5145111: W 90 cm, D 95 cm, H 93 cm
• Plate options: none, or a plate on the left or right arm for an ashtray or a glass

Two houses, one armchair

The page credits the armchair to a joint effort of Poltrona Frau and Fornasetti, two historic Italian brands. The sheet describes the collection as reinterpreting Renzo Frau's 1919 armchair together with Jean-Marie Massaud's Isidoro trunk, which becomes a bar cabinet printed with the same illustration.

The Ultime Notizie pattern

According to the page's Insights text, Piero Fornasetti created the Ultime Notizie pattern in 1950 and his son Barnaba redesigned it later. It calls it a playful trompe-l'œil in which the leather looks like paper, and the paper had first been conceived to be printed on silk. The sheet explains that the white leather is decorated with a method akin to silkscreen printing, using digital printing that gives a slight relief to the touch.