Mactan Stone Coffee Table by Magnussen Ponte, c. 1980s

This postmodern Mactan Tessellated Stone Coffee Table was designed by the Italian designer Magnussen Ponte in the late 1980s. The form is equal parts modern and classical, recalling the Roman ruins that liter Italy, while paying lip service to Shelley's famous sonnet Ozymandias.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away. 

Rebelling against modernism's cold rationality, Italian postmodernism embraced emotion, irony, history and play. The movement's leading figures included Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Gaetano Pesce, & Michele De Lucchi, who crafted crafted conceptual and provocative pieces that explored imperfection, expression, emotion, culture and history. 

This lesser-known iconic work continues in that tradition, and would make a welcome addition to a modern or classic interior.

Pristine vintage condition with no notable damage.