Afra & Tobia Scarpa "121" dining chairs for Cassina, black leather, Italy, 1965, set of four.

*2 of the chairs have cracks in leather and wear seen throughout the wood. 

Iconic and charming, the model "121" by Afra & Tobia Scarpa shows once again the Scarpa's typical double trestle structure with the characteristic rounded joint. The straightforward and minimal design is like a cubical volume; the supports, on the other hand, are slender, anatomically shaped surfaces. The seat and back are shaped in plywood and attached by bolts to crosspieces along the center that offer extreme comfort. The back has a cut in the lower part, required due to the presence of a reinforcement that reacts to torsion stress, which is strongest at this point.

Afra Bianchin (1937-2011) and Tobia Scarpa (1935) began their long collaboration in 1957. Starting from 1960, they collaborated with companies like Gavina, B&B Italia, and Cassina. Innovators and unconventional thinkers developed numerous projects discovering new ways of mixing different materials and shapes. Their pieces are exhibited in many museums worldwide, collections the MoMa in New York and the Musée du Louvre in Paris.