Renato Forti F54 interlocking bookcase Italy 1954

Very nice and unusual bookcase model F54 designed by Renato Forti and manufactured by Mc Selvini, Italy 1954. This bookcase system is totally modular and can be taken apart without needing any screws or nuts. It’s made from ash wood veneer in a warm caramel color, and it’s still in good original condition. The cool part is that it’s not just a single unit – you can disassemble it and use the pieces separately. One of the stabilizing bars has been remade, so you have the option to use it as two smaller bookcases as you wish.

The F54 designed by Renato Forti in 1954 was born from the idea that the bookcase should be a piece of furniture “at the service” of an enthusiast reader and therefore capable of growing both in height and in width (even one shelf at a time) to accommodate new books. Without having to resort to the intervention of a specialized fitter every time. The bookcase was therefore designed as a shelf with elements: flat side and crosspiece, to be assembled by interlocking without screws or glue. All components are made of very thick beech plywood. In the first prototype built in an old artisan workshop, with manual processing, the plywood was obtained by gluing various beech plywoods together. The final model, presented by the Frangi company of which Renato Forti was already a collaborator, was immediately accepted and the bookcase went into production. After the company closed in 1980, the F54 became part of the collection.

Literature: O-luce di Giuseppe Ostuni I Thomas Brauninger 2021, page 121

Renato Forti was born in 1923. In 1946 he joined the Frangi company in Milan as a designer and here, under the guidance of Angelo Ostuni, he completed his training as an interior decorator and designer. Alone or together with Angelo Ostuni, he designs furniture and accessories for the Frangi collection and lighting fixtures for Giuseppe Ostuni’s O-Luce, one of the fathers of modern Italian lighting engineering.

MC SELVINI, founded in 1926, represents a point of reference for Danish and Scandinavian design, even if the selection of furniture does not only include Nordic designers. The choice of a layout based on architects is motivated by the observation that they are all names with international resonance, while the brand of their “publishers” is often little known to a non-expert public. The assiduous attendance and relative friendship on a personal level with numerous of the proposed architects justify MC SELVINI’s pride in the presentation of a collection that offers an almost unique wealth of choice. This presentation is in fact the result of constant and passionate research in the field of design.