Prototype Rocking Chair by Arturo Pani

Prototype hand-forged, steel rocker designed by Arturo Pani and executed by Telleres Chacon, Mexico City. The piece has been reupholstered in hand-stitched, Edelman leather with custom piping. This piece was acquired from Telleres Chacon upon the retirement of Manuel Chacon, master metalsmith in the 1980s. This design is based on a Maison Jansen rocker design Pani had encountered in Paris.
Arturo Pani was one of the most significant figures working in design during the Mexican Miracle (1940-1970), a period of economic expansion marked by class tensions. While Mario, his architect brother, reconfigured Mexico City through the creation of vast social housing tracts and university projects, Arturo, son of the Ambassador to France, worked as decorator to Mexico’s most powerful classes and created the ‘Acapulco Style’ during that city’s golden age of Hollywood tourism. These unfinished prototypes and furniture sketches were acquired from Talleres Chacón in 2010, upon the retirement of Manuel Chacón, Pani’s longtime collaborater, fabricator, and master metal worker.