Sherwin-Williams Paint - Sherwin-Williams Paint and Color Style Guide - [ca. 1950s]

DA GEMINAI:
This volume possesses notable historical, collectible, and documentary interest, born from the perfect union between the intrinsic rarity of the object and the importance of the figure who owned it.
Here is in detail why this specimen is so significant:
The Book: Sherwin-Williams Paint and Color Style Guide
As clearly seen in images 57815.jpg, 57816.jpg, 57817.jpg, 57818.jpg, and 57819.jpg, the object in question is a monumental style guide published by the American historical Sherwin-Williams Decorative Studios in the 1950s.
An exclusive professional tool: It was not a common commercial catalog distributed to the public, but a huge atelier sample book. The ruler placed above the cover in image 57815.jpg highlights its extraordinary dimensions (about 50 cm in width).
The lending service: The inner card visible in 57817.jpg (Style Guide Lending Service) indicates that the volume was lent to clients for a maximum of 3 days to allow them to choose color combinations directly at home. Today these guides are highly sought after by design historians because they faithfully document the aesthetics, furnishings, and interior trends of American Mid-Century Modern (as shown in the beautiful interiors reproduced in 57818.jpg and 57819.jpg).
The Signature: The autographed signature on the flyleaf (visible in 57816.jpg and enlarged in 57820.jpg) reads: “ing. Vittorio Gigliotti / Roma - 1955.”
Vittorio Gigliotti (1921–2015) was one of the most important and brilliant Italian structural engineers and architects of the 20th century. He entered architectural history mainly for:
The partnership with Paolo Portoghesi: With whom he opened the historic Porta Pinciana studio in Rome and signed absolute masterworks of Italian Postmodernism, such as the renowned Mosque of Rome, the iconic Casa Papanice in Rome, and the Church of the Sacred Family in Salerno.
The collaboration with Bruno Zevi: In the early 1960s he founded in Rome the AZ studio together with the great architectural historian and critic Bruno Zevi.
The importance of this specific exemplar
The added value of this book lies precisely in its provenance:
Cultural testimony of the era: The dated Roma 1955 signature shows Gigliotti, then thirty-four years old – having graduated in Naples in 1947 and already in the midst of his professional activity – acquiring and studying the catalogs from overseas. In the 1950s Italian architecture and engineering looked with enormous interest at the industrialization of materials and the American color palettes to redesign the modernity of postwar times.
A association copy: In the collectibles and mid-century market, an object intrinsically rare that bears the ownership signature of a key figure in 20th-century architectural culture gains a superior status. It ceases to be a simple vintage catalog and becomes a true historical document tied to the visual and professional formation of a great designer.
In short, you have in your hands a fascinating piece of American interior design history that served as study material and inspiration for one of the brightest and most cultured minds in Italian structural engineering."}