Transparent green double-glazed crystal (double verre) – Nuova CEV

Thirty years have passed but I can still vividly remember as though it were today, the time we decided to take “something exaggerated, and astonishing….” to the MACEF show in Milan.

Our master glassmakers together with the master engravers studied and designed a column and an amphora in transparent green double-glazed crystal (double verre). In that era this was something totally new and never seen before, so what in our minds was really intended to be a visiting card, gradually turned into our core business.

amphora-in-transparent-green-double-glazed-crystal-double-verre-nuova-cev

column-in-transparent-green-double-glazed-crystal-double-verre-nuova-cev

Obviously since then we have been shamelessly copied by our competitors who are always waiting on the sidelines for our new creations which they immediately propose as their own. While on one hand this unfair behaviour is totally annoying, on the other it means two things:
1) that we are always one step ahead of the others, and
2) only those who are successful are copied

Discover more about Nuova CEV

5583

Made to Measure Boiserie – Samarreda

Boiserie is a term used for a decoration based on the coverage of the walls with wood panels, variously carved and engraved.

museo di versailles cabinet della regina

The first examples of boiserie were real marquetry, but later they were often painted panels inlaid instead. The boiseries  was very popular in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth century for the interior decoration. In Versailles there are numerous examples of this type of decoration. The panels were often not only to decorate the walls but also doors, partitions and booths.

l-universita-di-bologna-la-piu-antica-del-mondo
The term is sometimes used to refer paneling coatings, timber-not necessarily decorated, but enriched with frames

Some design firms have specialized in this type of furniture that require greater precision in the execution of relief and experience in the assembly. “(Source: wikipedia)
Our boiseries are created especially for our customers, designed to fit the space in which they must enter, enhance the environment with the craftsmanship and the materials they are made of.

Samarreda-boiserie-made-in-italy-tuscany

Proposal in an incredible variety of finishes and different combinations, the paneling is ideal both in the creation of new environments, beautiful and functional, for the redesign and transformation of existing spaces.

Samarreda-boiserie-made-in-italy-tuscany

Smooth or pantograph, in a classic or modern: the paneling is an extraordinary choice for interior design projects that aim to create sophisticated customized spaces.

ilcat Samarreda boiserie made in italy tuscany Samarreda-boiserie-made-in-italy-tuscany  Samarreda-boiserie-made-in-italy-tuscany Samarreda-boiserie-made-in-italy-tuscany
Discover more about Samarreda

5547

Florentine Renaissance Chess Set – Italfama

The chess set comes from an idea and a design by Aldo Marsili. The design represents the Florentine Renaissance while respecting the classic representation of the individual chess.

The match with the board and the tone of the chess men makes the set a very sophisticated piece of furniture.

Italfama-chess-scacchi-set
Chess pieces made in metal by mold process and completly hand painted,
sizes: ht.Re 13,8cm diam.base3,8cm

Italfama-chess-scacchiera-game-made-in-italy

Chess board made in erable wood and maple wood completely hand
inlaid, sizes: 51x51x1,8cm square 5,0cm

Italfama-chess-scacchiera-completo

Checker set made in metal by mold process representing the symbol of
Florence and the symbol of Medici family

Discover more about Italfama

7655

Hands – Nuova CEV

I have been told to explain in detail that our products are handcrafted, meaning that they are created by hand, one by one, and engraved by hand, one by one, etc. etc.

 nuova cev vetraio master engravers
I have been asked to highlight the skills of our master glassmakers who have been carrying on this work since they were children and now have white hair and a few aches and pains.

nuova cev incisore

I have been told that this “article” must make it clear that all the decorations on the crystal are created by hand with great passion and dedication by our master engravers.

Too bad all this won’t fit into a space of 850 characters; it’s a bit like trying to fit an elephant into a sandwich. It obviously won’t go, so you must settle for the heading, or if you are especially inquisitive, come and see how we make things with our hands… here at Nuova CEV!

nuova-cev-molatore

Discover more about Nuova CEV

4396

A pretty good Football Team – Nuova CEV

The people who work in a glass factory are prevalently all males and therefore the atmosphere is usually goliardic and filled with camaraderie: joking, teasing, poking fun and the assigning of extravagant nicknames is normal behaviour every day.

It is well-known that glassmakers have big appetites because they have to get up at four in the morning to carry out a decidedly physically strenuous activity, and so their breakfast usually consists of large French sticks filled with everything imaginable and all washed down with quite a few glasses of …

But apart from the numerous dinners and friendships also outside work, the one thing that creates harmony is an exciting game of football, and with so many stalwart young men available we have decided to put together a pretty good football team.

nuova cev football soccer team calcio squadra

Third time and a delicious cake, irrespective of whether winners or losers….. is in any case a MUST !

nuova cev torta

Nuova CEV italia 90 crystal

Discover more about Nuova CEV

4760

Realising other people’s desires – Nuova CEV

Our motto is realising other people’s desires.nuova cev

One day we received a visit from a very important man from the Middle East: I can’t remember his exact title, if he was an emir, a sultan, or something similar. Nonetheless, he was accompanied by a multitude of servants and wives, as is common among rich people from that part of the world.

nuova cev
He chose to purchase many magnificent things from us, to adorn his splendid palace. However, there was still one object which was needed to complete the decoration of the bathroom. When we explained that we could make the item but would need to produce a certain quantity for the manufacturing process to be economically viable, our wealthy visitor replied: “This is not a problem… if we multiply the number of bathrooms which each of my wives has at her disposal (at least two), by the number of palaces which I own, we can easily reach that number…”

portafazzoletti cromato nuova cev
And that is how our “tissue box” (made from crystal, obviously) was born.

Discover more about Nuova CEV

5046

A strong Crystal Company – Nuova CEV

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Let’s talk about Nuova CEV. How did it all started?
Our fortune usually derives from the fact that someone breaks something; everyone knows that crystal is very fragile and therefore… we are called on to reproduce it. In this case our history started after someone destroyed much more than crystal, when the whole of Italy had to be rebuilt and everyone had to roll up their sleeves and start from scratch… that is, after the Second World War. That’s how the CEV – Cooperativa Empolese Vetrai (cooperative glassmakers from Empoli) was born, a company that now has over three hundred employees. Up until the 1980s it produced glass in its various forms before passing the baton over to the Nuova CEV that sprang up in 1985.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

What’s the difference between CEV and Nuova CEV (nuova = new in italian)?
Nuova CEV was born with a new “old” idea: instead of turning to industrialization, to the first successfully experimented robots, or to serial and mass production, we decided to exploit the skills of our master glassmakers and engravers. Today we no longer concentrate on glass but instead, on crystal, devoting our work to small numbers in the pursuit of the highest quality of the items produced. In retrospect, this choice is what saved us – while twenty or so other manufacturing companies, all much larger and better structured than ours were forced to close after making the opposite decision.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

That choice was not easy to understand some years ago. A curiosity: you are always speaking as “we”…
It’s true, I always use the term “we”, not as the royal plural, but because I am not the big boss…in a “healthy” cooperative there is no big boss and nobody who feels that way. I am just the chairman and have been for a long time.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

How long have you been working here?
I began in 1990, before I turned thirty, I was appointed chairman by the other shareholders even though I was the youngest member; in a cooperative, elections are usually held every three years to renew the Board of Directors and therefore the chairman as well…and also in this case…. I have survived. And to think that I entered the Nuova CEV for the purpose of opening a data processing centre in the company. Instead I found myself doing a new job, rather, a thousand new jobs: in addition to being a glassmaker and glass grinder I have done everything. I consider myself a “spin doctor” and the “historical memory” of the company as by now all the founding members have since retired.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

What’s different in a cooperative company?
A cooperative is a strange undertaking, very different from a private company, as in fact, it works like a small republic and its representatives, who are elected by the “people”, are called upon to give life to those executive figures that actually plot the company’s future. It is similar to an enlarged family, with lots of children who grow up and as they grow they probably “drive their parents a little crazy”, with perhaps a prodigal son here and there, and also a son of a….in short, a real family. And as with all families, at least once a year there’s a great party to celebrate the fact of all being together.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Tell us something more about that party?
In the past, what seems like eons ago, we used to hold mega parties in beautiful villas with sumptuous dinners, animation for the children and entertainment for the adults, with numerous official guests and all the family members of each shareholder. Now that the crisis is upon us, just like good parents we have sized everything down, even though we never miss out on the pleasure of spending time together in front of a dish of delicious Tuscan food with a glass of good Chianti in our hands to share a few desecrating jokes true as all true Tuscans do – well, to tell the truth there are a couple of foreigners among us but they have already been converted…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Aside the party, how is the job?
I love my job as it takes me in contact with workers all over the world, and in line with my travelling spirit, I like to have personal experience with the habits and customs of our customers in the most exotic and most far away countries. At times we have had to supply decorations designed especially for the wedding of an Arab princess, or a Sultan, and just the fact of producing personalised bonbonniere (fancy sweet-box) for these events gives our company an important breath of oxygen. We indirectly come in contact with famous brand names and high-profile personalities, whose names we cannot mention as we work for them, making perfume bottles, home furnishings, and lamps etc., and because we produce cups and trophies that we then see on TV in the hands of the winners of the Gran Prix, world cup skiing, tennis, golf, football and many other sporting championships.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

So you are related in some way also to sports…
Personally, as a historical fan of Empoli Calcio, I am honored that the Nuova CEV has produced the various trophies assigned to footballers who have since become famous, such as Montella, Di Natale, and Giovinco, to name some of the most recent. And once, on occasion of a meeting between Pope Wojtyla and Bill Clinton in world vision, my mind boggled when I suddenly noticed a splendid lamp from our own production sitting on the table between them.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Which are the plans for the future?
What is the future of our company?
Whatever will be written down by those who will come after us.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Andrea Falaschi
President, Nuova CEV 

Discover more about Nuova CEV

5722

New Design Porte – doors and furnishing from Monteriggioni, Siena

New Design Porte, leading company in the production of interior doors and furnishing accessories, was founded in Monteriggioni, Siena in 1996 by experts of the furniture industry and the interior design.

new design porte e finestre logo

The founder Mr. Lorenzo Cortigiani and his wife Cinzia realized that while the furniture industry had centuries of artistic tradition and history, interior doors were only conceived as products that must performing a technical function without any aesthetic research.

Lorenzo Cortigiani e Cinzia – New Design Porte.
Lorenzo Cortigiani and his wife Cinzia

The growth of New Design Porte start hence; with the process of experimentation and innovation to transfuse the entire culture and tradition typical of the furniture maker in the field of interior doors.

New Design Porte
Lorenzo and Niccolò Cortigiani

The company has distinguished itself since its origin for several characteristics such the richness of ideas, the passion for aesthetic research and the experimentation of materials, shapes and finishings.

New Design Porte products are unique; they are masterpieces created by thousand years of Tuscany experience in fine materials, finishes and decorations all run strictly by hand.

Niccolò e lorenze cortigiani – new design porte
Niccolò and Lorenzo Cortigiani

Thanks to its flexibility, as a result of ongoing research and of experience, New Design Porte’s family is constantly growing, and today it’s able to realize any kind of personalized home decor, offering also a interior architecture service.

However it never leaves out the craftsmanship typical of his work that have made famous for the high quality of its products, a true example of the best Made in Italy.

Discover more about New Design Porte

5917

Tailor-made furnishings, no series production – Samarreda

tailor made forniture samarreda

We do not produce industrial design, we do not work for mass production. Our achievements have a father (the client), a reason (the requirement that created them) and a place to which they are intended.

tailor made forniture samarreda

As the tailor chooses the fabric with the customer, we select the materials that the client and/or designers have in mind; as the tailor takes measures for the wedding package and makes the model, we carry out the survey of the entire environment to rebuild it in our laboratory. The creation takes shape within our carpentry, where each piece is carefully made and assembled.

tailor made forniture samarreda

tailor made forniture samarreda

The skilled hands of our carpenters, materials of Italian quality, attention to detail offer to Samarreda’s customer a high tailoring.

tailor made forniture samarreda

Since 1966 Samarreda manufactures furniture for homes, shops, hotels, showrooms, places of work … never two alike, always identity of our client, always with the quality of Made in Italy.

tailor made forniture samarreda

tailor made forniture samarreda

tailor made forniture samarreda

Discover more about Samarreda

5001