Cassina: the Italian house that holds the licence on most modern furniture history
Cassina has been making furniture since 1927 and holds the licence on the entire Le Corbusier / Perriand / Jeanneret catalogue, plus most of the Italian post-war canon. Here's what to know before you buy a Cassina piece secondhand.
Cassina is one of the highest-volume brand searches on Whoppah; in the last 12 months our curators reviewed several hundred Cassina-attributed listings and accepted roughly two-thirds, with provenance being the main reason for rejection.
Cassina was founded in 1927 in Meda, north of Milan. They started as a traditional cabinetmaker, then in the late 1940s pivoted to design-led production with Franco Albini and Gio Ponti as their first major designers. Since the 1960s they have held the licence on the Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret catalogue (the LC series), the Rietveld estate (the Red and Blue chair, the Zig-Zag), and a long roster of post-war Italian work from Magistretti, Sottsass, Bellini and Magis.
If you buy a piece labelled "Cassina I Maestri", you're buying the authorised reissue program. These pieces are made to original spec, often in the same factory that made the originals, and they carry the full Cassina warranty and serial-number system.
What to expect on the secondhand market: Cassina production from the 1970s and 80s holds value beautifully, often selling on Whoppah at 50 to 70% of current retail. The Maralunga sofa (Magistretti, 1973), the LC2 Petit Confort (1928, Cassina since 1965), the Cab chair (Bellini, 1977) and the Soriana sofa (Tobia Scarpa, 1969) are the pieces I see most often.
Every authentic Cassina piece since 1965 carries a sewn-in label inside the upholstery with model name, serial number, and country of manufacture (Italy). The CASSINA wordmark uses a specific sans-serif typeface; copies often get the typeface wrong, which is the fastest authentication tell.
Counterfeit Italian-factory copies of the LC2 and Maralunga exist in large numbers. The pricing gap is real: a genuine Cassina LC2 sells used for €1,500 to €3,500, a convincing copy for €600 to €1,200. Both look similar in listing photos. The differences (steel gauge, chrome depth, leather weight, hinge mechanism on the Maralunga) reveal themselves in person.
If you're considering a Cassina purchase, ask the seller for a photo of the serial label. Whoppah's curation team can verify against Cassina's heritage department for high-value pieces. I'd rather walk you through the check than have you regret a four-figure purchase.
