Metafora #1 Coffee Table in Marble and Glass attributed to Lella and Massimo Vignelli for Casigliani, Italy, 1980s

Metaphor #1 - Low Table

Conceived in the U.S. by Lella and Massimo Vignelli and made in Italy by Maurizio Casigliani, this system of elements (a glass top and four Euclidean geometry marble supports) to be assembled into a low table was first presented to the public at the fall Macef and, immediately after, at the Milan Furniture Fair in September 1979.
Immortalized on the cover of "Casa Vogue" in November of the same year... it soon became a best seller of the fledgling Casigliani brand dedicated to furnishing objects, of which Metafora "anticipates and already contains some constant characters in the production" (Pier Carlo Santini). Particularly for the explicit search for "solutions that are not too precarious in terms of taste" aimed at "enhancing" the properties of marble as a "durable material par excellence" (Pier Carlo Santini).
The four solids, clearly visible under the glass top, are like pieces of a witty and bizarre game. Elements at play whose free arrangement is constrained solely by gravity and laws of statics. All the supports could be made of a single quality of marble, but also of different qualities, variously combined and combinabil. The four now-canonical versions of Metafora are: the three monomaterials in Carrara White marble, Nero Marquinia marble, Travertino marble, and...
Here the "historic" combination featuring the pyramid in White Carrara marble (White P. marble), the cube in Nero Marquinia marble, the cylinder in Travertino marble, and the sphere in Mondragone or Rasotica marble (now Emperador Dark).
Originally there were at least 3 size variations of the vitreous top: rectangular (120 x 80 x 2 cm); small rectangular (100 x 65 x 2 cm); large square (120 x 120 x 2 cm).
The maximum height of the solids as the diameter of the cylinder was 20 cm, while the diameter of the sphere was slightly less (19.8/19.9 cm).

Dimensions of the Solids:
Cube: 20 x 20 x 20 [h] cm
Pyramid: 20 x 20 x 20 [h] cm
Cylinder: 20 [Ø] x 20 [h] cm
Sphere: 19.8/19.9 [Ø] cm
Solid Weight: 17/22 kg