Coral Jewelery, a tale from the past for Torre del
Greco. The marriage between Torre del Greco and coral
is almost 200 years old. They were not always easy years:
crisis, problems, betrayals cheats by other towns. Like
in every marriage there were good times and bad times,
but all considered it is a happy, solid and lucky union.
The truth is that the relationship between Torre del
Greco and coral started well before 1800. Already in
the 15th century the people of Torre del Greco were known
as coral harvesters. We have to wait until the 17th century
though, to see coral harvesting become the main town
activity. We’re
talking about harvesting, not working. The harvest was
entirely sold at terribly low prices to the Jewish living
in Leighorn and Genoa. A hard life for few rewards
|
| Very soon the first workers Martin established their
own business. We mustn’t forget that Torre was counting
on a a fleet of 300 “coralline” carrying on
the harvesting. This coral naturally found its way to our
workshops instead of those on Leighorn, Genoa, Marseille,
towns that declined very soon as they were not fed by raw
material. Through many adventures, and after two world
wars, Torre del Greco counts today about 4.000 people
that after 2000 years hand down the art of coral
and cameo working. During these 200 years there have been
different periods, characterized by different styles, different
fashion, and by different ways of working cora. There is
a “necoclassical period”, in which the lines
are sober and elegant; a “fruit-and-leaves period” characterized
by the engraving of small fruits, flowers and leaves; the
combination of these object with gold produced extraordinarily
beautiful effects. In the period between the two World
Wars there was a serious lack of raw matter. The dwells
were the waste materials used to be thrown were re-opened;
in the rich periods, when the raw material was very cheap,
only the better parts were used, which were easier to work.
Now that the period was poor, these waste parts were good
enough. This is how the fashion of “tessito” was
set: little spheres, obtained by the waste coral, interwoven
around a wooden sphere. It was along and hard job to interweave
a sphere: coral work and weaving work. Occoreva tanto,
tanto lavoro per tessire una sfera. The little coral pearls
had to be perfect, exactly of the same size, an then those
of the same colour were selected. If the pearls
were not perfeclty round, or had some flaws, or even worse,
were not of the same size, it was immediately visible,
as the weaving wasn’t perfectly lined up.
The same about the colour: when it wasn’t perfectly
homogeneous, it was immediately visible! But when the
pearls were perfect, identical by size and colour, the
chomatic and plastic effect was wonderful! In 1991on
the occasion of the “Rouge Corail” exhibition
in Monaco, Rajola showed a collection of jewels made
with the “tessito” technique, which excited
admiration among Their Heighnesses Prince Ranieri,
Prince Albert and Princess Stephanie, and also among
the more than 200.000 people who visited the show. Talking
about the present, we can’t forget how important
in fashion were – and are – the torchons
made of several necklaces of interwoven coral spheres,
which give a great effect for a good price. Besides,
there were the always present dangers of sailing. The
main risks, after storms and shipwrecks were the north
african plunderers. They often captured entire crews,
and after having robbed them of the ships and the load,
they asked for money in exchange for the prisoners’ lives.
This habit became so frequent that in Torre del Greco the “Pio
Monte del Marinaio” was established; it was a kind
of mutual aid association financed by a contribution of
all the sailors (at the time they were about 4.000 out
of 15.000 inhabitants). The “Pio Monte” intervened to
ransom the prisoners, to support the sailors’ widows
and to give their orphan daughters a dowry. Coral working
started in Torre del Greco in1805, by a french man, from
Marseille, called Martin, who moved his workshop to Torre
for a good enagement and a promise made by the Bourbons
that he would not pay taxes. This was the beginning of
the ascent of our town. Business were going very well.
Martin, who started with 30 workers in his workshop, found
himself with 200 workers in a very short time
|
