Piero Lissoni x Salvatori – Lost Stones Collection
Piero Lissoni creates a series of bistro tables from historic pieces of marble found in the Salvatori archive. Share
The collection comprises a series of elegant bistro tables whose circular stone tops have been naturally shattered into a constellation of stone shards. Featuring versions in Rosso Francia, Verde Alpi, Nero St. Laurent and Giallo Siena, each broken piece is sealed up along its surface with a luminous gold seam. Lissoni pulled the technique from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, a method of repairing broken ceramics that considers the destruction of an object as merely another phase in its life cycle. Cracks, scratches and natural wear have been left in-situ, celebrating the stone’s storied life. The base of each table is balanced by a single piece of white Bianco Carrara marble.
Constructed from the last remains of heritage stone that is no longer quarried, Lissoni’s tables are not only beautiful, they are infinitely rare. The terracotta-coloured stone came from the same quarry that supplied the burnt orange tones found in Paris’s Notre Dame, while the forest green was a favourite of Mies van der Rohe, who used the deep, inky shade on both his Barcelona Pavilion and Manhattan’s Seagram building. The black stone was used in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica in the 1500s.
Gabriele Salvatori explains how the project came about: “Many years ago, Piero asked me if I had any broken pieces of marble he could use for a project. At the time, I thought nothing of it. But when I asked him to create a series of bistro tables, the idea resurfaced. So I went searching. I found some very old marble slabs in my warehouse, ones that I have been seeing since I was a kid and always wondered why they were still there. Like those things you find when you open a box in the attic after so many years. Those things that smell of dust and make your heart tighten because they take you back in time. All of a sudden I looked at them with different eyes. I finally saw the beauty and dignity that they had never lost, despite having been forgotten for years. I immediately called Piero and explained to him that we are dealing with remnants in very small quantities — and often also quite broken. Piero fell in love with the project, immediately telling me that if they are broken we can fix them with the Kintsugi technique and that if the quantities are not big we don’t care. We will use the best we have. The result is pure poetry.”
“Lost Stones was born to give new life to fragments of precious stones, joining them following the randomness of its shatter. The golden seams along the profiles of each cut transform the imperfect form into its current perfection,” Lissoni describes of the project.
The creation of the elegant and understated bistro tables gives these impeccable stones a well-deserved second life, respecting their heritage while preserving their extraordinary profile. The Lost Stones collection speaks firmly of Salvatori’s values as a company. History, sustainability, material reuse and sophisticated, contemporary design all converge in Lissoni’s exquisite creations and unrivalled luxury.
