The Italian Exhibition - London 1888

By: Anna Checcoli

On may 2nd 1888, London opens the Italian Exhibition of Fine Arts. Many artists will be among those present, as Carlo Bugatti (1856/1940), architect,decorator, designer of furniture and jewels, who will be awarded a price. His furniture are defined "with copyright"; materials used are wood, bone, ivory and metal. Eugenio Prati (1842/1907), painter, attended with "Gold Wedding" and two other paintings. Enrico Melegari (lutist), who was awarded the gold medal "for the goodness of his violins and the specialty of his varnishes". The work "Philosophy, history and literature in the conception of LeoneXIII" planned by the Saint Giovanni Bosco in 1887 to celebrate the sacerdotal jubilee of Leone XIII, was awarded the First Honours Certificate of the Italian Exhibition of London, which take place under the patronage of the English Royal Family and of Umberto I, King of Italy from 1878 to 1900, with his consort and cousin Margherita (born in 1851), first Queen of Italy, daughter of Ferdinando, Duke of Genoa, and Princess Elisabeth of Saxonia. When she married the heir to the throne, on April 22nd 1868,she was 17 years old; so, the Exhibition coincided with their marriage twentieth anniversary. An other wedding was celebrated at Savoia's House in 1888: that of Amedeo Ferdinando with his niece Letizia of Savoia-Napoleone.

Margherita was a lover of elegance and jewels. Her motto was: < BEING PRESENT EVERYWHERE IT'S POSSIBLE TO STRIKE POPULAR FANTASY AND IMAGINATION >

The Queen gets her clothes made by the couturier Charles Frédéric Worth, of Anglo-Saxon origin, whose official final seal was in France, at the Napoleon III court. Among his clients, the Princess of Metternich, the Empress Eugenia, Elisabeth of Austria, the Sicilian Countess Franca Florio.

Luxury lover, Margherita was of course a great passionately fond of fans too, and she tried to support anyway the Italian market. The competition created by the big inflow of Chinese and above all Japanese fans, caused the closing of several Italian establishments. Mr.Tenenti decided to set up an his own manufacture, of artistic, luxurious fans, but also of the poor tradition, with rose wood and bamboo sticks.

In 1878, on the occasion of the visit of Queen Margherita to Milan, he presented her with a fan of this type, of any intrinsic value, but representative of Italian industry efforts.

Margherita is also a great supporter of the Burano lace School, where she ordered many fans. Besides, she lends many exemplars to the first important exhibitions dedicated to the Fan.

In 1908, at the Society of Fine Arts Exhibition in Florence, there are displaied 440 fans from Queen's collections and from other important Florentine families.

A big relaunching of the fan matches the relaunching of the lace in Europe in the last quarter of XIX century. Venetian and Burano lace are the most refined.

Burano school has been opened a short time before, and it proposes a very large range of models (sticks from the lowest height of cm.13 to the max of 18. Leaf from the smallest spread of cm. 30 to the max of cm. 93).

In 1879 ten fans are commissioned, for two Princesses and eight Countesses. Price goes from 65 to 150 liras. In 1880 Queen Margherita will order three different models. At the Exhibition of Turin of 1884 price goes from 170 to 105 Liras. At the Paris one, in 1889,price goes from 65 to 100 Liras.

In 1900 a Burano lace fan, with blonde tortoise-shell sticks, guard sticks of gold and diamonds and Savoia coat of arms costs 840 Liras. But we also know a fan mounted on 18-carat gold, with diamonds and pearls to the value of 3000 Liras.

Queen Margherita died on January 4th 1926 in the Villa Bischoffsheim (then called Etelinda), where she went the first time in 1878, to recover after the attempt on Umberto in Naples.

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