Giacomo Cometti, a Sophisticated Anglo-Japanese Style Armchair of Angular Design

Giacomo Cometti. A sophisticated Anglo-Japanese style armchair of angular design. The high back sits on the back of the back legs which in turn connects to the arms through the seat forming stylistic wing shapes, which in turn connect to the front legs with side stretchers connecting back to the back legs. This unique innovative progressive design not only unites all of the chair joints seamlessly, but also makes it an extremely strong arm chair.

Professionally upholstered in a high quality Morris & Co, strawberry thief fabric.

Giacomo Cometti 1863–1938. He was born in Turin the son of a marble sculptor. After his father died an early death Giacomo went to work with the sculptor Odoardo Tabacchi and sculptor and cabinetmaker Davide Calandra and began attending the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, where he graduated in 1891.

He then became a pupil of sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi, which grew into a partnership that lasted for over 20 years. He was encouraged by Bistolfi to pursue cabinet making and applied arts in the new modernist style, where he favoured the Arts and Crafts Liberty style. He received the sculpture award at the Antwerp Exhibition in 1894, a medal for his work in Paris in 1900 as a cabinetmaker for a cabinet with panels designed by Bistolfi, and a diploma of honour in 1902 at the International Decorative Arts Exhibition in Turin. From 1902 Cometti dedicated himself to the design and making of furniture and furnishings, sometimes with sculptural carvings.

He was heavily influenced by C R Mackintosh and Henry Van De Velde.

In 1903-1904, Cometti collaborated design work with the architect Annibale Rigotti, for the villa falcioni in Domodossola. He also designed furniture for the Agosti house in Turin. In 1911, he created the Piedmontese pavilion at the Turin Exposition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. In 1923, he received the Grand Prix of Honour at the first biennial of decorative arts in Monza, and during the following two years, he designed and made the furnishings for the Piccolo Teatro of Casa Gualino with the painter Felice Casorati.

Cometti taught in Art schools and he also founded an artisan workshop. He was an exceptional designer, cabinet maker and sculptor and made very small runs of furniture over his lifetime mostly for interiors and therefore the furniture he designed and made are extremely rare.

He died in Turin on 1 January 1938.