MILAN, ITALY.- On April 18th 2005, Sotheby's Milan will host a private collection of Design and 20th Century Decorative Arts including ceramics, furniture and paintings designed by Gio Ponti, the great Milanese architect. The sale continues a series of sales relating to important design of the 20th Century, including The Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, New York, December 2003, the Collection Karl Lagerfeld, Paris, May 2003 and the Torsten Bröhan Collection, London March 2005.

Born in Milan in 1891, Ponti began his career in 1923 presenting porcelain and majolica works at the 1st International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Monza. For the following seven years, until 1930, he was artisthe was artistic director at the Richard Ginori manufactury and from 1946-1949 at Venini in Murano, Venice. In 1928 he founded Domus, stil, to this day one of Europe's most influential architecture and design magazine. From 1936 to 1961 he taught at the faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico of Milan. The Royal College of Art of London awarded him an honorary degree and he received a gold medal from the Accadémie d'Architecture of Paris.

The city of Milan boasts many of Ponti's projects: from the 1925 house on via Randaccio and Borletti house to the Rasini house built in 1933 at Bastioni of Porta Venezia. In 1936, Ponti was architect and interior designer at the Montecatini headquarters, again in Milan; 20 years later he designed the famous Pirelli tower - one of Milan's icons and a masterpiece in the history of modern architecture. Other commissions, no less illustrious, include the Alitalia office building in New York (1958) and the Museum of Modern Art in Denver, Colorado (1972). Hias furniture output includes his celebrated Superleggera chair designed for Cassina in 1957 and the Ponti Ponti chair (1971). Gio Ponti was an eclectic personality: he was architect, designer, painter, scenographer as well as a wonderful editor. His designs, always inventive and often fun, were true to his belief that decoration and modern ideas were not incompatible.

On April 18 Sotheby's will hold in Milan a unique sale devoted to Ponti for international collectors whose interest in 20th century Decorative Arts is acute.

In New York last December three sales brought a sale total of over $18 million dollars. Highlights included by a large table designed by Le Corbusier in 1934 for Thonet sold for over $ 254.000 dollars (from an estimate of $ 10/15.000 dollars) and a monumental copper Urn, circa 1900, by Frank Lloyd Wright which sold for $478.000 dollars and finally a pair of doors designed in 1949 by Jean Prouvé and purchased by a private American collector for over $ 680.000 dollars (estimate $60.000-80.000). Gio Ponti lived through many epochs and styles - born in the late 19th century and living through to 1979 - and his boundless output is characterised by an intelligence and acuteness which has inspired many. In his architectural projects, the house was designed as an individual expression of life and culture and living necessities were never sacrificed in favour of the architects's vision.

The collection presented in this sale catalogue represents Gio Ponti's production at its best, starting from ceramics realised from the collaboration between the architect and the Richard Ginori manufactury (1923-30) and including decorations in classical style - inspired by the Etruscans, Greeks and Romans. The ceramics comprise examples of all the principal works from 1923-1930: the early and immensely popular "Il Pellegrino Stanco" (The Tired Pilgrim) and the first of the 'families', "The Passeggiata Archeologica" (The Archeologic Walk), as well all pieces from "Le mie Donne" (My Women), "La Venatoria" (The Hunting) and "Le mie Terre" (My Lands) families.

Two large urns with covers (height cm 50 each), including a blue and gold Triumphus Fortunae (1923) and La Passeggiata Archeologica (The Archeologic Walk) (1925) painted with gold, purple and grey, are respectively estimated € 22-28.000 and € 30-50.000.

An important pair of six-branch porcelain candelabra, also executed by Richard Ginori at the Doccia factory, height cm 45, modelled 'in the white' shaped as a tree trunk with stylized leaves , heightened with gilding are estimated at € 30-50.000.

Many of Ponti's ceramics are included in the sale, including the "Vaso con manici a Stuoia" (Two handled Vase with cross band decoration) (est. € 15-20.000) an early work designed in 1923, "L'Amazzone col giavellotto" (The Amazon with the Javelin vase) designed circa 1928, (est. € 18-22.000) and of the same year, "Il Trasporto del Daino" (Carrying the Buck vase ) (est. € 12-18.000).

Also a charming white porcelain inkwell and cover from 1930, decorated with black Greek gods (est.: 1.8-2.200); a white glazed porcelain tea service comprising a teapot, a milk jug, a sugar bowl and 12 cups with saucers (est. € 1-1.500) and an oval service dish decorated with fishes (est. € 1-1.500). Furthermore, perhaps running contrary to current public thinking, are a pair of tobacco boxes (pink and blue), Le Delizie del Fumare, (The Pleasures of Smoking), 1923-1930, cm. 17 high and estimated € 5-8.000 each.

In the Furniture section of the catalogue, a fine selection of pieces designed by Gio Ponti starting from 1929, of particular note is the magnificent pair of 1929 walnut veneered pier cabinets with bronze mounted mirrors, illustrated in Ugo la Pietra's 1988 monograph devoted to the Milanese architect. This pair, designed by Gio Ponti for the Schejola apartment on via Pisacane 29 in Milan has an estimate of € 100-150.000. They are a perfect example of the architect's creativity, whose skill in the use of materials and care for detailing - in this case burr, walnut and gilt bronze - here are perfectly combined with his successful new elaboration of 18th century models into a 20th century aethetic. Stool, seats, writing tables, bedside tables and armchairs in various woods, some with Ponti's signature arrow decoration range in estimate from € 2.000 to € 15.000.

A very fine piece is the large writing desk dated 1931 and realized by Gio Ponti for R.B. da Turri di Varedo; it is a burr walnut veneered table with a free-standing letter rack. Highly architectural in form, decorated with arrows stretchers and bow-form rear stretchers, this piece of furniture carries an estimate of € 80-100.000

En suite with the writing desk and stamped on the reverse "Turri Mose fu Stefano/Fabbrica d'Arte/Bovisio/Milano", again dated 1931, are a trumeau and a sideboard, respectively estimated € 40-60.000 and € 30-50.000.

In the catalogue also a group of black lacquered dining furniture with square tapering legs - comprising console, credenza and table and chairs and cabinet carry estimates ranging from € 20.000 to € 50.000 each.

Of particular interest for scholars is the maquette of the Torre Littoria (Torre del Parco) of Milan designed by Ponti in 1933 which stands in Milan; the maquette is a painted metal and wood model (height cm. 137) with electric mechanism to action the lift, estimated € 10-15.000. This tower (116 meters high) is situated in Parco Sempione and was inaugurated on August 10, 1933. In the summer of 1977 the tower was re-opened to the public thanks to the restoration realized by "Fratelli Branca".

Many sketches - pencil, ink and watercolour on paper - highlight the sale catalogue with estimates starting from € 300; among them, eight sketches for modernist dwellings, from circa 1930, ink on single sheet of paper, estimate € 400-600 and a project for a Summer House of the same year and same estimate. On black paper the tempera sketch (est. € 400-600) titled "Lo Zodiaco" (Zodiac): the Zodiac decoration has been used several times by Ponti, including for the pieces of furniture designed for Fonta