Art Decò Rounded Sideboard Dry Bar By A. Fallica For A. Liporesi

Art Decò Rounded cabinet dry bar sideboard front and side doors by Alfio Fallica for Alfonso Liporesi, in white oak with illuminated upper compartment. Generous sideboard with front and side spaces, very useful for bar and lunch services. Murano glass handles. Aluminum edging.

LIPORESI, Alfonso : 1919-2001
Alfonso Liporesi was an artist, a designer and a furniture manufacturer with "Liporesi Arredamenti d'Arte, Bologna", famous above all for having created the "VENCHI" chain of shops in many Italian cities and furnishings for France, Belgium and Germany.

As an artist, Alfonso Liporesi's work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from 1,679 USD to 2,713 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork. Since 2019 the record price for this artist at auction is 2,713 USD for Tabouret moderniste en chêne, assise circulaire concave reposant sur une base légèrement bombée entourée d'un cerclage en aluminium brossé., sold at Tajan in 2022.

As designers he is famous for his Bar Cabinet with mirrored glass inserts and marble top,1950s; also sofas, coffee tables, poofs, sold at auction for thousands of euros.

FALLICA, Alfio
He was born in Paternò (Catania) on 18 April. 1898 by Salvatore, farmer, and Maria Russo. He attended the high school of architecture in Rome and already before graduating (1931) he participated in numerous exhibitions.
In May 1925 he exhibited at the headquarters of the Roman engravers and artists group, together with Eugenio Fegarotti from Catania.
On that occasion, Fallica stood out above all for his originality and his skills as a designer: "he knows how to draw well and also excellently summarize with a personal and architectural character, avoiding the useless and abolishing conventionalism" (Scarpa, 1925, p 5). In addition to the drawings, in the same exhibition he also presented some etchings.
In 1925 he participated in the III Rome Biennial (see Il Messaggero, 1 July 1925) and in 1927 in the III International Exhibition of Monza and the II Werkbund Exhibition in Stuttgart. Furthermore, in 1927 he won first prize in the competition for the monument to the financial police in Rome. Also in Rome, in 1928 he participated in the 1st Italian Exhibition of Rational Architecture.

Among the 42 exhibiting architects only two came from southern and insular Italy: Fallica and G. Marletta from Catania (Cennamo, 1973, p. 101). Fallica presented seven projects, some of which were already under construction: the Cutore villa on Etna, the "citrus laboratory" in Paternò, the Fegarotti villa in Fregene, the Fegarotti villa in Rome, the entrance to the Plaja in Catania ( the drawing, which evokes De Chirico atmospheres, is found in Catania, with F. Mariela's daughter), the transformation of the small house owned by Cutore and David on Etna, the arrangement of the pavilion of the Chamber of Commerce in Milan, a perspective and a elevation of his study.

In the project for Villa Cutore on Etna, among the simplicity of the straight lines and flat surfaces, an excessive rigor emerges, a little chastened and "not sufficiently animated by the shadowy voids of the large openings, the external stairs, the very thin railings" ( Rocca, 1988, p. 101). In Paternò's "citrus laboratory", however, the linear forms interact with the curvilinear volumes. A more complex operation was the Fegarotti villa in Viale Bruno Buozzi in Rome, defined as a "Mediterranean interpretation of rationalist principles" (De Guttry-Maino, 1988, p. 148), in which the only historicist insertions are evident in the gables." sixteenth century" and in the pillar-tower which refers to art nouveau.

In 1929 F. designed and built the Fecarotta jewelery shop in via Etnea n. in Catania. 172 (today only the sign and a large round table, designed by him, remain). Around 1930, still in Catania, he designed Villa Caponetto, built in via Passo di Aci.

It is an eclectic architecture in which Phallica's interest in the deco taste appears evident, but also in the Palermo tradition (Arab-Norman) in the red domes and in classical culture, in the use of the cornucopia which frequently appears as the theme song for Fallica's works. Finally, it is worth noting the turret in which the original insertion of the small round balcony emerges which turns "outwards, like a tray suspended beyond the transparent body of the veranda" (Rocca, 1988, p. 102).

In 1931 Fallica graduated in architecture with Marcello Piacentini, supervisor; the following year, on 11 May, in Catania, he married Rachele Sciuto, belonging to the upper middle class of Catania, with whom he had three children: Mariela (born 20 July 1933), Livia (born 27 March 1937), Salvatore ( born 31 January 1947). In those years Fallica worked between Catania and Rome, where in 1939 he called his family. He returned definitively in 1943 to Catania, where he continued to work intensely in the field of architectural design.

In 1932, again in Catania, he created the original Etne café (see F. Fichera, in Rivista del Comune di Catania, October 1932, pp. n.n.), now destroyed, in which the painted walls presented evident deco motifs, while the monumental coffee machine evoked futuristic forms. Among the civil architecture of this period are the condominium building in via Umberto 144/D, with a rigidly square shape, and another building in piazza Jolanda 23, notable above all for the internal staircase which unfolds softly around an ideal oval pillar . The building in viale XX Settembre 29-33 from 1934 and the condominium building in via Lago di Nicito 34 denote a now fashionable twentieth-century style. However, the limits placed on F. by the clients, who tended to economize at the expense of quality and of the decorative apparatus.

Among the Catania architects of the 1920s and 1930s - C. Aloisi, F. Fiducia, R. Leone, G. Marletta and F. Fichera - F. was probably the most eclectic: in fact he also dedicated himself to furnishings, sculpture, to painting and engraving.
His activity as an interior designer and creator of furniture was better known.

ABOUT A. LIPORESI
"Liporesi Arredamenti d'Arte, Bologna" was an important furniture and furnishings manufacturing company of the 20th century. Founded by the famous architect and designer Alfonso Liporesi whose creations are well valued by furniture auction houses in Italy and abroad.