BOOK DEDICATED TO PONTI'S WORK

Remember that Seinfeld episode where Kramer invented a coffee-table book with pullout legs that transformed it into a miniature coffee table? Well, a new luxury art book from publisher Taschen goes one better. The hardcover Gio Ponti is filled with 136 projects reproduced from the Gio Ponti Archives, which is dedicated to the works of Italian architect, industrial designer, artist and furniture designer Giovanni (Gio) Ponti. Only 1,000 books will be made, but each one comes with the Planchart Coffee Table — a reproduction of the Arlecchino design — and four ocean liner interior prints. Altogether, a set costs $4,325.64 on 1stdibs.com.

“Through Ponti's work, it is possible to travel through six decades of Italian cultural life, where his creativity was always able to be expressed,” the book's curator, Salvatore Licitra, told Architectural Digest.