The Società Economica of Chiavari - founded on 15th April 1791 - starting from 1793 organized an Industrial Exhibition, which exhibited products intended to be drawn as lottery prizes. The various craftsmen, were commissioned to make varied objects, previously estimated, which later would be drawn in a public lottery.

The first Chiavari Exhibition was held in 1793, to coincide with the festivity of Our Lady “La Madonna dell’orto”; it was held in the former Oratory of the Church St.Maria della Valle (Afterwards  the Verdi Theatre) and opended with a speech made by Marquis Stefano Rivarola who was the president of the Società Economica. There were usually 20 products on show, and 200 lottery tickets. In 1796, a craftsman called Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi nicknamed Campanino was awarded a silver medal for two beautifully made pieces of furniture.

In 1807 Marquis Stefano Rivarola returned from Paris with some chairs which had caught his attention for their refinement and proposed them as models to some of the best Chiavari craftsmen.

Descalzi, disdainful of having to make an exact copy of the model, decided to improve it; modifying the shape of the back-rest and the legs, he substituted the frame of the seat of the chair by using a new kind of straw, made of willow strips, which were so finely plaited, close and elastic, as to seem a strong piece of linen. The whole was light but solid: a chair was weighed in ounces and the plaited strips in millimetres. However, so modified and improved, it was no longer the Parisian chair but a new creation, the “Chiavari chair”, immediately called the Campanino like its creator.

Antonio Canova, ordered one, declaring that its maker had solved a difficult problem, the least weight with the maximum solidity.

Campanino who had won a silver medal in 1796, was awarded four more, and during the 1829 Exhibition, he received a gold medal, and the title of auxiliary member. He was immediately made an official, who no longer received awards, instead voted who were to receive them. He was also given a gold medal at the 1846 Genoa Exhibition.

The Campanino chair was sold all over the world and the craftsman’s small workshop was visited by princes and monarchs.

In 1825 two kings and queens arrived; they were Carlo Felice  the king of Sardinia, Francesco I king of the Two Sicilies with their wives. Francesco I ordered over a hundred chairs and a table veneered with shaving chips, on top of which, Campanino had shrewdly applied a layer of varnished slate.

In 1825 Metternich summoned him to Vienna to order a large commision for the imperial court. In 1838 king Carlo Alberto came to see Campanino to order chairs for his palace, at the same time allowing him to hang in his workshop the royal coat of arms. In 1852 the president of the Società Economica during a public session on the 4th July, awarded Campanino the cross of Knight of Saints Maurizio and Lazzaro, without Campanino himself being aware of it.

Although the modest Campanino died in 1855 his art prospered for many years, due to his family and expert Chiavari cabinet makers, until the competitive chair of Vienna was created as well as numerous varieties of chairs and armchairs; but the Campanino chair quite rightly remained in the history of  furniture.

It was partly due to Descalzi’s merit if the Società Economica was able to give rise to the production of qualified handicrafts in large numbers. As the nobleman Giuseppe Cavasola said during his presidential speech in 1843: “The chair brought forth a genius, who might have remained unknown to the arts and to the man himself without the impulse of the Società Economica".

The Società Economica recently proposed a European Competition for the Chiavari Chair (www.sediachiavari.it) obtaining a good response. When the names of the winners are known there will be an official ceremony.

Chiavari (Genoa) - Via Ravaschieri 15 - Tel. 0185-324.713 - fax 0185-364.719

Library 0185-363.275 - Email: info@societaeconomica.com

Italian | Links | Info | Statuto | English | Français