Home & Office Objects collection
Berluti has teamed up with a select group of highly respected European makers, including Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Bottega Ghianda, San Lorenzo Silversmiths and Simon Hasan for its new Objects collection, commissioning Berluti editions of iconic historic designs by Gae Aulenti, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Carl Auböck II and III and new work by Simon Hasan, dating from every decade between the 1950’s and 2000’s.
Werkstätte Carl Auböck is a Vienna based brass workshop founded in the late 19th century, which developed in the 1920s under Carl Auböck II who was one of the first students at the Bauhaus in Weimar. Pierluigi Ghianda is one of the most celebrated Italian woodworkers of the 20th century, the man to whom top Italian architects such as Gio Ponti, Gae Aulenti,Angelo Mangiarotti, Vico Magistretti and Ettore Sottsass turned to produce bespoke accessories and furniture, today these pieces form the Bottega Ghianda collection. San Lorenzo, since its foundation in 1970 by Ciro Cacchione, has distinguished itself for collaborating with internationally famous designers and architects such as Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Antonio Piva, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, and Lella and Massimo Vignelli, creating masterpieces of contemporary silver. A graduate of London’s Royal College of art, Simon Hasan is a designer/maker specialising in leather, working in Cuir Bouilli, a medieval technique of boiling raw leather to form his organic and slightly abstract shapes.
The Berluti Objects collection includes a magazine rack and a letter opener from 1950 made in cast brass hand finished in Berluti’s emblematic Venezia calf leather and a set of curved rectangular lidded boxes in Venezia calf leather, hand-stitched and fully-lined, designed by Carl Auböck II in1951. And by his son, Carl Auböck III, a desk blotter, pencil pot, pen holder, stationary holder and wastepaper bin in Venezia calf leather, hand-stitched and fully-lined and a desk clock in cast bronze, with a cantilever base, finished in Venezia calf leather, with embossed numerals, hand-stitched, brass hands, with movement by Hublot, all 1960’s.
A set of trays built entirely by hand, in maple and ebony, made unique by their solid angled joints and lined in Venezia calf leather are by Gae Aulenti from1979. Also by the Italian architect, a set of photo frames, created in 1986 in the Bottega Ghianda wo The rectangular and square Boxes, by Afra & Tobia Scarpa, 1972 have perfect proportions according to the golden section cannon. Sterling silver is cut and folded and finished with copper sections and rivets and lined in Venezia leather. Also by Afra & Tobia Scarpa, from1996 a set of three Cartoccio Bowls, born as a spontaneous, simple and evocative gesture, as a sheet of paper imprinted in the hand that illustrates perfectly the properties of pure silver (999/°°°), now with the addition of fine supple Venezia calf leather on the outside.
A set of 5 vases by Simon Hasan, made using a 15th Century crafts technique in which vegetable tanned leather is heated in water on wooden moulds. As a designer maker, Hasan is unique, and has been developing this technique since 2008. The seam is secured with stainless steel hardware and the forms are sealed inside with resin, before being finished in the Berluti atelier with emblematic hand applied patina.
The project represents over 7 decades of design from 1950 to 2020 and more than 400 years of collective know-how; the combined savoir faire of Berluti in leather with that of the silversmith, carpenter, metalworker and designer/maker. According to Berluti’s creative director Kris Van Assche, finding makers with a rich tradition of craftsmanship was the starting point for this high-end collaboration. The 7 decades reflect the richness of Berluti, a house that talks to different generations of men. The products, many of which were no longer in production, yet are highly prized by collectors, have a proven enduring allure. They are not new but have a new life. ‘I approach the project in the same way as everything I do at Berluti, newness with Simon Hasan, tradition with Carl Auböck and Bottega Ghianda and the luxury of silver with San Lorenzo, all Berluti projects should have these three dimensions’.
The objects sit alongside the 17 original Pierre Jeanneret furniture pieces, created by the Swiss Architect in the 1950s, to furnish Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex, in India, restored by François Laffanour and upholstered with Venezia leather, presented with Laffanour Galerie Downtown in Miami in December 2019 during Art Basel. ‘For the Jeanneret project I could use colour on objects, rather than items you wear, it was liberating, these objects were a next step’. Colours are bright and bold, Van Assche’s starting point was two colour collections Le Corbusier created in 1931 and 1959 and as well the rich colours he found in the light, architecture, landscape and foliage in Chandigarh. Colours include Pinjore Garden green, Nespola orange, Utopia Blue, Sukna Sunset Purple, Rose Garden Pink, Simal red, Amalta yellow and Berluti’s signature tobacco. The addition of Berluti’s hand-applied patina on each and every piece enhances the depth of colour.
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