NEW Elda Chair by Joe Colombo for Longhi, Italy
About the Item
- Creator:Joe Colombo (Designer),Longhi (Manufacturer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 36.23 in (92 cm)Width: 36.23 in (92 cm)Depth: 36.23 in (92 cm)
- Style:Post-Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:2023
- Production Type:New & Custom(Current Production)
- Estimated Production Time:5-6 weeks
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Alsdorf, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU7025235122942
Elda Armchair
With its bulbous fiberglass shell and plush leather cushions, the Elda chair looks as if it belongs on a big-budget 1970s-era film set. That’s just where you’ll find it — the piece made its feature-film debut in the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me. The chair was created by Cesare "Joe" Colombo (1930–71), an Italian artist-turned-industrial-designer known for his retro-futuristic works. Colombo started his career as an artist, studying painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan before he went on to study architecture at the Polytechnic University. Throughout the 1950s, Colombo found a home within the Abstract Expressionist movement, creating paintings and sculptures that were exhibited throughout Europe.
Colombo’s focus shifted to design when he took over his family business, an electrical appliance manufacturing company, where he experimented with industrial production techniques. In 1962, he opened his own architecture and design firm. With a focus on futuristic living systems inspired by the technological advances of the space race, Colombo created everything from air-conditioning units to dinnerware to furniture, most famously the 1963 Elda chair.
Named after Colombo’s wife, the Elda chair was designed to wholly surround its sitter, as if it were hugging them. The designer envisioned the chair to be a place of comfort in the home from which you could use digital technology to connect with the world — as it turns out, Colombo had impressive foresight. A year following his death, Colombo’s design work was included in the 1972 exhibition “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Joe Colombo
He died tragically young, and his career as a designer lasted little more than 10 years. But through the 1960s, Joe Colombo proved himself one of the field’s most provocative and original thinkers, and he produced a remarkably large array of innovative chairs, table lamps and other lighting and furniture as well as product designs. Even today, the creations of Joe Colombo have the power to surprise.
Cesare “Joe” Colombo was born in Milan, the son of an electrical-components manufacturer. He was a creative child — he loved to build huge structures from Meccano pieces — and in college he studied painting and sculpture before switching to architecture.
In the early 1950s, Colombo made and exhibited paintings and sculptures as part of an art movement that responded to the new Nuclear Age, and futuristic thinking would inform his entire career. He took up design not long after his father fell ill in 1958, and he and his brother, Gianni, were called upon to run the family company.
Colombo expanded the business to include the making of plastics — a primary material in almost all his later designs. One of his first, made in collaboration with his brother, was the Acrilica table lamp (1962), composed of a wave-shaped piece of clear acrylic resin that diffused light cast by a bulb concealed in the lamp’s metal base. A year later, Colombo produced his best-known furniture design, the Elda armchair (1963): a modernist wingback chair with a womb-like plastic frame upholstered in thick leather pads.
Portability and adaptability were keynotes of many Colombo designs, made for a more mobile society in which people would take their living environments with them. One of his most striking pieces is the Tube chair (1969). It comprises four foam-padded plastic cylinders that fit inside one another. The components, which are held together by metal clips, can be configured in a variety of seating shapes (his Additional Living System seating is similarly versatile).
Vintage Tube chairs generally sell for about $9,000 in good condition; Elda chairs for about $7,000. A small Colombo design such as the plastic Boby trolley — an office organizer on wheels, designed in 1970 — is priced in the range of $700.
As Colombo intended, his designs are best suited to a modern decor. If your tastes run to sleek, glossy Space Age looks, the work of Joe Colombo offers you a myriad of choices.
Find vintage Joe Colombo lamps, seating and other furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Alsdorf, Germany
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- NEW Elda Chair by Joe Colombo for Longhi, Italy in white & taupeBy Longhi, Joe ColomboLocated in Alsdorf, NWIn 1964, Joe Colombo designed the Elda fibreglass armchair for Comfort - it has been produced unchanged in Italy ever since. We have currently Elda chairs in stock. They are immedi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
MaterialsLeather, Fiberglass
- NEW Cognac Elda Chair by Joe Colombo for Longhi, ItalyLocated in Alsdorf, NWIn 1964, Joe Colombo designed the Elda fibreglass armchair for Comfort - it has been produced unchanged in Italy ever since. We have currently Elda chairs in stock. They are immedi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Armchairs
MaterialsLeather, Fiberglass
- Joe Colombo Universale Plastic Chair for Kartell White Italy Vintage Space AgeBy Joe Colombo, KartellLocated in Alsdorf, NWNice set of two chairs by Joe Columbo. Manufactured by Kartell. The Universale chair is one of the first molded plastic chairs created. The ch...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Chairs
MaterialsPlastic
- New Ghost Chair by Cini Boeri for Fiam Glass ChairBy FIAM, Cini Boeri & Tomu Katayanagi, Cini BoeriLocated in Alsdorf, NW“A perfect synthesis of technological experimentation and formal research, the Ghost armchair, designed by Cini Boeri and Tomu Katayanagi, represents the desire to dematerialise the ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
MaterialsGlass
- Italian Vintage Sheraton Sideboard by Giotto Stoppino for Arcebis BlackBy Acerbis Design, Lodovico Acerbis and Giotto Stoppino, Acerbis, Giotto StoppinoLocated in Alsdorf, NWDiscover the Italian Vintage Sheraton Sideboard, a masterpiece of design by the renowned Giotto Stoppino for Arcebis. This sideboard, origin...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
MaterialsWood, Lacquer
- 1960s Plia Folding Chair with Woven Wicker Giancarlo Piretti for Castelli, 1967By Giancarlo Piretti, Anonima CastelliLocated in Alsdorf, NWRare original 1960s Plia folding chair with Viennese wickerwork. Design Giancarlo Piretti for Castelli 1967. Made in Italy. Great Italian design rare with braid on seat and backr...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Post-Modern Chairs
MaterialsCord
- Golden Limited Edition Elda Chair by Joe Colombo for Longhi Italy no. 8/20By Longhi, Joe ColomboLocated in Budapest, HULONGHI created a limited edition golden chair from Joe Colombo’s original ELDA design. The chair was only taken out of its original box to take a photo of it. Its condition is excel...Category
2010s Italian Space Age Armchairs
MaterialsMetal
- Cognac leather and white Elda chair by Joe Colombo for Longhi ItalyBy Joe ColomboLocated in Stavenisse, NLWhat more can be said about this iconic design by Joe Colombo that hasn’t been said before? A design far ahead of its time, on the verge of space age and modernism. Colombo was able...Category
2010s Italian Space Age Armchairs
MaterialsMetal
- Golden Limited Edition Elda Chair by Joe Colombo for Longhi Italy no. 7/20By Joe ColomboLocated in Stavenisse, NLWhat more can be said about this iconic design by Joe Colombo that hasn’t been said before? A design far ahead of its time, on the verge of space age and modernism. Colombo was ab...Category
2010s Italian Space Age Armchairs
MaterialsMetal
- Elda Chair by Joe ColomboBy Joe ColomboLocated in Dorchester, MADesigned by Joe Colombo in 1965 (and named for his wife), the iconic Elda Chair marries a powerful Space Age frame of fiberglass with deep channeled cushion...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Swivel Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass, Upholstery
- Elda Chair by Joe ColomboBy Joe ColomboLocated in Porto, PortoElda Chaie designed in 1963 by Joe Colombo. produced in Italy. It was considered very futuristic for its time. The structure - Fiberglass white shell rotates on a 360 ° swivel base,...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsLeather, Fiberglass
- Elda Lounge Chair by Joe Colombo for Comfort, Italy, 1960sBy Joe Colombo, Comfort, ItalyLocated in Lasne, BESwivel armchair in red leather and white shell. Seat height 40cm. Wear due to time and age.Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal