the expressionist sideboard.

a real rarity – and extremely impressive: the ‘madia’ sideboard by ferdinando meccani – manufactured in a small series in the meccani’s family workshop in cascina, italy. there, ferdinando was born in 1937 (✝︎ 2018), he graduated at  the state art Institute of cascina and later at the florence institute of art. in the 60´s and 70´s he developed modern furnishings for the firm calamai in florence before joining and transforming his father’s joinery into a design-oriented company for home furnishings.

as a designer, artist and painter he collaborated with world-class artists such as ettore sottsass, michael graves, paolo portoghesi, ugo la pietra, adolfo natalini, masao noguchi, lanfranco benvenuti etc..* the collaboration with ettore sottsass in particular proved to be extremely fruitful: meccani became the preferred manufacturer of sottsass‘ objects. together they further developed the pop laminate experiments of the memphis furniture with more valuable materials (e.g. strongly grained types of wood or high-gloss lacquer), which meccani was able to process and produce excellently thanks to his experience. meccani’s own designs such as the ‘madia’ sideboard are innovative and creative from the outset: the corner doors on the left and right are hinged at the sides to create a clear joint pattern at the front. behind the centre doors are three full-length shelves to be found – and at the top two lids fold back to conceal almost secret compartments. the expressive wood grain has a beautiful patina on the outside (brighter than the inside due to exposure to daylight).

available for sale: a rare „madia“ sideboard in ebony, designed by ferdinando meccani in 1970 and handmade by meccani arredamenti, cascina, probably in the 80´s. this work of design is out of production and not be reproduced in the future. the sideboard has four doors and two ribs with three internal shelves.