Set of 4 Demetrio 45 side tables by Vico Magistretti for Artemide, 1960s

The idea, Magistretti says, comes from some plastic containers, used to wash the photographs, which were molded in Germany: «I thought of cutting the container leaving the corners and the bottom. An easily stackable and moldable plastic table was born. Perhaps my first object of industrial and serial production with few human hands. ». Artemide is among the first Italian companies to exploit the technology of plastics applied to the world of furniture. The system of Demetrio coffee tables, molded and stackable to form étagère, designed by Magistretti in 1964 and entered into production two years later, mark a crucial moment for the affirmation of designer furniture made of plastic that must compete with traditional proposals. Demetrio, whose shape derives directly from the curves and pleats necessary to reinforce the structure, represents an emblematic case among Magistretti’s objects in which aesthetics, far from being generated by a matter of pure taste or style, are directly born from a structural need and the technical possibilities offered by the material. Demetrio also represents the ideal evolution of the wooden stackable tables, T8, designed in 1949 and produced by Azucena and subsequently re-edited, in 1965 by Cassina. The Demetrio system is made by molding a thermosetting plastic material in a single piece consisting of glass fibers impregnated with polyester resins. In very good condition, with slight signs of use.