GASTONE RINALDI for RIMA

GASTONE RINALDI (Padua, Italy, 1920–2006) for RIMA, Italy.
Dining table, 1970s.
Space Age style.
Chrome-plated steel and tinted glass.
Condition: Signs of wear consistent with its age.
Measurements: 72 x 175 x 90 cm.

This table is an attractive example of 1970s Italian design, a period in which research into industrial materials gave rise to furniture with a distinctly sculptural presence. Its combination of glass and chrome-plated steel, along with the asymmetrical arrangement of the base, places it squarely within the futurist aesthetic associated with the Space Age.

The design features an oblong, tinted glass top with rounded edges, supported by a deliberately exposed chrome-plated steel frame. The cylindrical pedestal consists of a rhythmic succession of vertical tubes, from which several cantilevered horizontal elements extend beneath the tabletop. This structural solution transforms the support into the table’s primary visual feature and creates the impression that the glass is suspended above a lightweight mechanical structure.
The transparency of the tabletop allows the metal framework to be viewed from different angles, highlighting the contrast between the flat surface of the glass and the linear rhythm of the chrome-plated tubes. The composition avoids traditional central symmetry and shifts the visual weight toward one end, lending the piece dynamism and an almost architectural character.

Gastone Rinaldi was a leading figure in postwar Italian design and spent much of his career at RIMA, a company founded by his father, Mario Rinaldi, in Padua. His work was distinguished by his experimentation with steel and his pursuit of visually light structures. In 1954, he won the Compasso d’Oro for the DU30 chair, produced by RIMA, and his Saturno sofa, designed around 1958, is part of the Architecture and Design collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.