Cortona –The Mother of all Antiques Fairs

 Cortona (Arezzo) from 26 August - 10 September

By Mary Jane Cryan  

Fresh on the tail of the extremely successful Tuscan Sun Festival of performing arts that filled the city of Cortona with music throughout the month of August,  the Antiques Fair is perhaps beyond its prime but nonetheless an excellent excuse to visit the town where the mysterious smile – and life style- of the Etruscans  lingers on.

Corona’s Antiques fair, celebrating its 44^th edition this year, can rightly be considered the mother of annual Italian antiques fairs. Begun  in 1963 to act as a launching pad for the town’s flourishing restoration and furniture reproduction business, the show was dedicated to the “mobile antico” or antique furniture but over the years it has expanded to include art works, jewellery and other branches of the antiques world.

 
(first 3 photos courtesy Ufficio Stampa Cortona)

 Held at the elegant Palazzo  Vagnotti, the show & market was and still is the show place of Central Italian top antiques dealers. 

Adding flavour to this year’s edition is a retrospective exhibit in honor of artist Gino Severini held in Palazzo Casali and another show of 1950’s fashion from the Prato Textile museum. 

Looking back at the old catalogues in my library I realize that the annual visit to Cortona was always more than just a chance to admire (and dream about buying) antique furniture and art works. The catalogues were also tomes of knowledge full of helpful information. 

  The 1970 catalogue with its 260+ pages of illustrations shows the prize pieces of 48 exhibitors –the crème of central Italy’s “old timers”. From Rome Rosati & Terenzi, Venturi & Spada both with shops on what was then the busy hive of Rome’s top antiquarians - Via Giulia. 

Arezzo’s legendary Ivan Bruschi, after whom the Foundation Ivan Bruschi is named, wrote the preface for the catalogue.

The catalogue of the 10^th Antiques Show, in 1972, weighed in with a hefty 380 pages and was enriched with a selection of articles on Cortona Etrusca by Paolo Bruschetti and the Palazzi of Cortona signed by local priest, Bruno Frescucci as well as a poem of Gabirielle D’Annunzio  “La città di silenzio” in honor of the city of Cortona.

In the 1981 catalogue is prefaced by enlightening articles on the Etruscan smile, the musical chapel of the cathedral of Cortona, and the city laws for the year 1325. 

For the year 22^nd anniversary of the Antiques Fair in 1984 Mario De Filippis, the Guiness world champion with his collection of ex libris,  presented a fascinating account of these little works of art that decorate the frontispiece of so many of our books. 

The 27^th edition of the show in 1989 saw an interesting monograph by Umberto Rossi on Luca Signorelli  and the previously unpublished sketchbook of Giovanni Fattori, “Ricordi di Rome 1884” .

 
(photo by John Ferro Sims)

Thumbing through the pages of illustrations depicting elegant chests of drawers, 19^th century mahogany tables, sculptures and paintings prompts the question: how many young couples visit the antiques shows today looking for special pieces to help furnish their first home? Or is the IKEA catalogue now preferred reading? 

A word of advice: do not be surprised when the cheap factory-produced kit furniture falls apart after a few years of use, a couple of kids and house moves. The antique chest or cupboard will remain and increase in value as the years go by and can be considered a far better investment than bonds or money in the bank. Antique furniture and works of art are investments that you can admire as you use them to furnish your home.

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Buying antiques in Rome

By M.J. Cryan

From the times of the Caesars when copies of Greek statuary were imported to enrich the Empire’s private villas and public palaces, Rome has always been the capital of antique collecting. The many obelisks that spike Roman squares and the delicately incised ring gems seen in museum collections are also testimony of the Roman-and Italian- love for precious art objects large and small.

To help prospective buyers of antique “objet d’art”, here is a quick outline of Rome’s antiques market with hints on how to overcome the language barrier and  where to find the best shops and trustworthy dealers.

There is no substitute for leisure time for searching, for appreciation and understanding of antiques or for knowledge of prices in your field of interest, but if you are prepared you can find excellent buys in the city’s many shops dealing in antique furniture and works of art.

Streets given over to the antiques trade are concentrated in different parts of the city: the first and perhaps the best known since it is part of the regular tourist route, is the Via del Babuino-Via Margutta area near Piazza di Spagna. Most of the shops in this area are on an international level which means that the prices and objects for sale are top of the line. Some of Europe’s oldest and most esteemed antiquarian dynasties –names like Di Castro, Antonacci, Efrati, Apolloni, Fallani (classical Roman objects, Roman coins) are located in this area. A walk by their shop windows can be a breath-taking experience for that well known Roman flair for decoration is evident in the window arrangements, as it is in the selection and placement of furniture and art objects inside the shops. The walk is also breath taking for another reason: Via del Babuino has very narrow sidewalks and via Margutta has none so watch out for weaving taxis and Vespas zooming along at breakneck speed.

If time is short take a peek in at Granmercato del Antiquariato, a three story supermarket type of shop stocked with old carpets, antique jewellery, English silver and knick knacks. Its logo, a statue lying on its side, helps locate the shop, just beside the ancient fountain-statue of the Babuino (baboon) once one of Rome’s “talking“ statues.

The second antiques zone is in a quieter area of Via Giulia and its parallel, Via di Monserrato together with the smaller intersecting streets. There are galleries filled with 17^th ,18^th and 19^th century paintings, art deco or Liberty objects, custom designed furniture, fine antique cufflinks and watches, as well as second hand dealers or “rigattieri”. Restorers, gilders and other craftsmen working alongside the antiques’ trade can be found here too as they can be on Via dell’Orso, famous for its annual Artisans’ Fair in October. The daily outdoor market of Piazza Fontanella Borghese is the venue for small objects, books and prints sold from a dozen market stalls. Other “flea markets” sprout up during weekends in various parts of the city, but Fontanella Borghese is a stable market with a long tradition.

Nineteenth century furniture and decorative art can be found in the third area near Piazza Navona and Via dei Coronari where many shops specialize in this period. You can combine browsing for antiques with sightseeing on Via dei Coronari (“street of the crown or rosary bead makers “) especially if you are interested in architecture. There are imposing palaces such as that of the Lancellotti family, a beautiful church with neighboring cloister garden of St. Salvatore in Lauro and they say that no 122 used to be the home of “beloved painter”, Raphael. Shops keep evening hours in late spring to encourage visitors to stroll, browse and hopefully buy.

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Connoisseur’s Guide to Porta Portese

By M.J. Cryan

Every Sunday morning for the past 50 years the network of streets in the Trastevere section between Viale Portuense and Viale Trastevere is transformed from a normal neighbourhood into one huge mass of tables and stalls with over 900 vendors selling everything imaginable; new and used clothing, plants, pets, tools and bicycle parts, fake Etruscan pieces and Roman bronzes as well as some genuine antiques.

If you are looking for blue jeans, household goods or auto parts try the riverside entrance at Piazzale Portuense where eager buyers stream under the famous Roman porta that gives the market its name –Porta Portese.

If instead it is the rare, old and unique you wish to track down, make your entrance from Viale Trastevere at Piazza Ippolito Nievo. The antiques section runs along both sides of tree-lined Via Ippolito Nievo, Via Parboni and adjacent streets where the sharp-eyed collector can find Fascist era mementoes, nativity figures, attractive imported items, Depression glass and all kinds of collectables. Parking in the area is virtually impossible so catch any bus running down Viale Trastevere to the Nievo piazza or take a taxi there.

The first stop in Piazza Nievo is at the numismatics dealer with his table full of Roman and foreign coins, mosaic brooches, old cameos and carved gemstones. If you are in a decorating mood there are dealers of Indian antiques with a wide selection of metal and wooden pieces recuperated from decaying palaces in northern India. Nearby a few bancarelle offer botanical, costume and decorative prints, landscapes and 19^th century maps as well as old books. Needless to say, discounts are offered (don’t be afraid to ask) for quantity buying.

Only a fraction of the once large Russian (also Polish, Moldavian, etc.) contingent is still working the market with their linens, camera parts, bits of Baltic amber and some questionable icons. They have been replaced by importers from other countries, especially China. From Indonesia there are wood carvings of plants and exotic birds in bright primary colors that make attractive decorations for kids’ rooms. Between a carpet dealer and a table filled with sequinned slippers and incense sticks you can find heaps of necklaces in semi-precious stones such as African malachite, tiger-eye and such at good prices.

Just before Carnival time costume hunters can be seen digging through heaps of cast-off costumes, old hats, battle gear, red-buttoned cassocks and the like to come up with original fancy dress without spending a patrimony.

The labyrinth of streets around Via M. Bezzi and Via Musolino calls for a lot of stooping if one wants to take a good look at the ephemera spread out on the tarps. Next to old passports, yellowed letters, vintage photos and postcards one can find new discounted art books and a selection of old clocks. This is the way things were (and still are) bought in the days before e-bay. Here the prospective customer can see, touch, ask prices, bargain and then decide to buy.

Returning up the other side of Via Bargoni there is a table dedicated exclusively to buttons of all colors, shapes and sizes and another devoted to minerals and fossils. Here one can find marble and stone in every imaginable form: tiny pyramids, eggs, balls and obelisks like those featured in glossy decoration magazines.