Mario Bellini for Cassina Cab 412 Chairs in Burgundy Leather, Set of 4, 1970s–80s

Designed by Mario Bellini for Cassina in 1976–77, the Cab 412 was the first chair in design history to feature a freestanding leather structure with no internal wooden or plastic shell—the leather itself acts as the load-bearing skin over a tubular steel frame. The chair was included in Cassina’s “I Contemporanei” collection and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a rare distinction for a mass-produced dining chair. Bellini’s own description of it—a chair made entirely of saddle leather, which has since been widely imitated—captures why it remains one of the most reproduced silhouettes in Italian design. This set of four is made of hand-stitched saddle leather in a deep burgundy, cut from sixteen individually die-cut panels and assembled around the steel frame with concealed zipper closures running up the inside of each leg, much like a tailored garment. The seat rests on a rubber membrane plate over the tubular frame, with polyurethane foam padding beneath the leather covering. Each chair features the characteristic tapered leg profile and the visible vertical seam on the backrest that distinguishes the original Cab design from later reissues.