Cassina celebrates 60 years of Gio Ponti’s iconic 699 Superleggera chair

For 60 years now, Gio Ponti’s legendary 699 Superleggera chair has been produced by Cassina in Northern Italy. To mark the anniversary, the brand has revealed a special limited-edition example upholstered in a new version of Dutch artist Bertjan Pot’s ‘Boxblocks’ fabric…

A masterpiece, pure and simple

Representing a ‘symbol of perfection and balance between solidity and lightness’, the 699 Superleggera chair is rightfully considered one of Gio Ponti’s masterpieces, alongside the Pirelli Tower in Milan and the Concattedrale of Taranto. The chair, which tips the scales at a scant 1,700 grams, has been a staple of Cassina’s range for 60 years, and now the Italian brand is celebrating the anniversary with a special edition, clothed in a revised version of Pot’s ‘Boxblocks’ fabric, to be built in a limited run of 60 units. The occasion also threw up a photo that we found particularly charming and quintessentially Italian – that of a Fiat 1100 with tens of chair frames loaded onto its roof, bound for Liguria to be finished.

Photos: Cassina