#Fantasy #Furniture #Noteworthy #Offbeat #Designers #WorthPoint
In the era of Instagram and Pinterest, when everyone is falling for timeless, classic design, I tend to gravitate towards quirky, weird furniture. I like unusual and interesting furniture to fulfill my love of visual drama. So, you can imagine my excitement when I was introduced to this offbeat fantasy furniture type—these pieces don’t fit the rules of any style.
These eclectic, humorous designs are immediately recognizable and demand your attention. Chairs in the form of dancing peacocks, tables shaped like large hands, and sofas designed to look like lips epitomize the fantasy furniture style. So, here’s a peek at a few visionaries who took their furniture to its fantastical extremes.
CARLO BUGATTI
It’s hard to overlook Carlo Bugatti’s whimsical, bizarre, and eclectic furniture. The Italian artist-designer used vellum parchment, silk tassels, and repoussé brass to create a unique furniture style, becoming one of the most influential designers of his generation.
Bugatti was experimental—his designs combine a startling range of styles, cultural quotations, and historical reminiscences. He started his career in architecture, studying the Egyptian and Islamic revival styles. But soon, he left it in favor of furniture and metalwork.
Studying the architecture of different countries certainly influenced his furniture. In addition to North African and Islamic designs, elements from Asian and Minoan styles appear in Bugatti’s work. You can also see the influence of French architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc reflected in his furniture. Some pieces have the flowing, sinuous character of the art nouveau movement. Other works boast elegant sculptural forms and balanced, geometric shapes.
When his contemporaries were using industrial materials for furniture, Bugatti made his out of bone, pewter, mother of pearl, parchment, and copper, among other refined materials. A fine example of Bugatti’s unique aesthetic is the Sgabello Chair. Though asymmetrical, the chair is tightly balanced and set on thick feet. Its legs are richly ornamented with circles of inlaid bone and copper designs that form various geometric shapes—typical of Bugatti—underneath a similar circular ornamented headrest.
Bugatti continues to amaze collectors with his radical works that combine the visual dialog between cross-cultural art and architecture.
PIERO FORNASETTI
The name Piero Fornasetti needs no introduction—the prolific Italian painter, sculptor, decorator, and craftsman is internationally known for his hand-painted furniture featuring playful, witty, and whimsical imagery.
Growing up in Milan, Fornasetti was surrounded by rich art and culture. For a brief period, he studied in Milan before taking a tour of Africa. He spent most of his days reading books and magazines on art and science, a habit that shaped his imagination.
He was influenced by everything around him—the exotic landscapes of Africa, Greek and Roman architecture, mind-bending surrealism, metaphysical art, and the adaptation of vivid colors of the modern 20th century. Beyond these, Italian architect Giovanni Piranesi’s influence is clearly reflected in his designs. His likeness for astronomy and science was so deep that he incorporated elements from nature into his works. Many subjects inspired him, from buildings to butterflies, musical instruments to harlequins. “In his motifs, he favored Piranesi-like engravings, the sun, moon and stars, playing cards, animals and surrealistic images,” The New York Times wrote in Fornasetti’s obituary.
In his lifetime, Fornasetti created several furniture pieces, but his most beloved work is the Architettura series in collaboration with Gio Ponti. Ponti designed the furniture of this collection, which was enveloped by Fornasetti’s imagery. Based on geometric lines of Renaissance palaces and neoclassical buildings, the imagery mainly focused on their façades and interiors. The interplay of perception of volume and surface filled the pieces with illusions.
The sun, a recurring theme in Fornasetti’s creations, can be seen in many of his furniture pieces, but the motif was not employed as grandly as in his Sole Chair series. He decorated the ergonomic, yellow curved chair with an anthropomorphized sun echoing the Greek god Helios. The chair today is much celebrated among collectors.
CAMPANA BROTHERS
The Campana Brothers—Brazilian design duo Fernando and Humberto Campana—have put both Brazil and South America on the design map. Their wildly imaginative and opulent furniture styles, made of old, discarded items, straddle the boundary between art and design.
The brothers began their partnership in the early 1980s. Since the beginning of their collaboration, they have been designing furniture, installations, and objects by reinventing and transforming everyday materials, such as aluminum wire, cardboard, cloth, plastic tubes, soft toys, rope, and wood scraps. Each furniture piece is unique and references the rich Brazilian culture and tradition. As artist Vik Muniz wrote in Bomb magazine, “the beautiful chaotic subtlety of the Brazilian spirit.”
Some designs are made from parasitic vines; others are made from carpets. Among them is the Favela armchair. Made from cast-off strips of wood, glued and nailed together randomly, it is a homage to the country’s local favelas who construct their homes from whatever materials they get their hands on. “The streets of São Paulo are a sort of laboratory for our designs. Whenever we need inspiration, we rely on the chaos and beauty of the city we live in,” the brothers said.
Their most-celebrated design and one of the first pieces made of unconventional material is the Vermelha chair. This mop-like iconic piece is handmade from over five hundred yards of brilliantly colored rope, intertwined and woven to create its nest-like structure. The Campana Brothers’ audacious and eclectic fantasy furniture is futuristic and a hot favorite among collectors.
These are some of my favorite designers whose furniture is fresh and exciting, something that makes you stop and say, “WOW!” I think we all should have that one piece of fantasy furniture that’s utterly unusual, surreal, charming, and ridiculously larger than life.
Nazia Safi is a freelance writer who has been writing about antiques, art, and auctions for over half a decade. As an avid reader, she is always enthusiastic about learning new things. She studied business administration before working as a freelance writer with several art, auctions, and design publications.
WorthPoint—Discover. Value. Preserve.
