Borgo San Lorenzo ceramics

Galileo Chini and the Fornaci San Lorenzo

In Florence, at the end of 1896, Galileo Chini, Vittorio Giunti, Giovanni Montelatici and Giuseppe Vannucci had set up a factory named L’Arte della Ceramica, which already at the Exhibition in Turin in 1898 had a great success. Galileo was the artistic manager of the factory, and the general consensus gained in those years convinced other members of the Chini family to join the company.
However, l’Arte della Ceramica went through difficult times and both Galileo and Chino left the firm, to set up a factory in Borgo San Lorenzo in 1906 and named it Fornaci San Lorenzo.
Having been involved in the previous management, these two agreed to put the new company in the name of Pietro, Chino’s son. Galileo, who was a very famous artist, launched the new company at the Milan Exhibition in 1906 with great success.
Their trademark was the grate of San Lorenzo with the Florentine lily above it.

Until 1911 the Borgo San Lorenzo workshop depended entirely on the search for form by Galileo. The repertoire of Fornaci San Lorenzo included “palmettes”( a design which is a replica of oriental fabrics), geometric designs set out in strips and other motifs that definitely stood out clearly at the bottom of the vessel without covering its entire surface. As well as ceramics, however, the factory of Borgo San Lorenzo developed a considerable production of artistic stained glass windows, made, however using more traditional methods.

Thanks to the great success that Fornaci San Lorenzo had in Faenza, on the occasion of the Esposizione Torricelliana in 1908, the Gerini, an important family in Borgo San Lorenzo were convinced enough to invest their capital in the business which then changed its name to Società Fornaci San Lorenzo Chini & Co. The fame of this company reached its apex winning gold medals both in Brussels in 1910 and in Turin in 1911.
In 1911, though, Galileo left for Siam, having been entrusted with frescoing the royal palace, while the company, which had already obtained a contract to panel the interior of the throne room, could not fulfil the commission due to Chino being seriously ill.

Other important jobs, like that for the Belsieri spa baths in Salsomaggiore, finished in 1923, helped to sustain the firm and influenced its activity for years.
After the Paris exhibition in 1925 Galileo left for good the artistic management of the factory, which was taken over by Tito, Chino’s son. The ceramic panelling in the spa complex of Castrocaro, made by Tito at the end of the thirties, can be considered the last great work produced by the factory in Borgo San Lorenzo.

Work continued until 1943, the year in which the factory was heavyily bombed. The building was razed to the ground and in its place was built what today is called the Franco Pecchioli factory.

Fausto Berti