2,411
edits
Rossi: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 17: | Line 17: | ||
So the province of Varese became the most important center of Italy’s pipemaking industry after the turn of the century. Still going strong today along with the brands in the provinces of Como and of Pesaro. | So the province of Varese became the most important center of Italy’s pipemaking industry after the turn of the century. Still going strong today along with the brands in the provinces of Como and of Pesaro. | ||
[[Image:Rossi_10.jpg|left|thumb|50th anniversary - the | From 1918 on '''Leonida Rossi''' supported his father in the management of the company. Later he was designated as chairman and joined by his brothers. Rossi now firmed as '''Fratelli Rossi Barasso''' shortly '''FRB'''. | ||
Between the world wars Rossi finally promoted to be the biggest pipe factory in the entire world. Next to the domestic market in Italy the United States were the most important client. | |||
The factory was systematically and consequently modernized and extended. The briar was stored in 18 sheds, which were arranged six by six in three rows. There was a power plant, a sawing mill, a department for ebonite mouthpieces as well as a department for horn mouthpieces, a department for filter tubes and one for fittings made of metal etc. Taken for it’s size practically any of these individual departments outmatched any other complete pipe factory in Italy! At the end of the production line stood a warehouse for the finished pipes featuring the dimensions of a big a department store. | |||
[[Image:Rossi_05.jpg|left|thumb|The main entrance]] | |||
[[Image:Rossi_15.jpg|right|thumb|Villa Rossi]] | |||
[[Image:Rossi_10.jpg|left|thumb|The factory in 1936]] | |||
[[Image:Rossi_20.jpg|right|thumb|One of the sale's rooms where customers were welcomed]] | |||
The absolute peak of production was reached in 1936, the year of Rossi’s 50th anniversary. Rossi employed 860 persons - 95% of them were women – who turned out more than 50,000 pipes per day. Per day! (Remember, those were the days when good restaurants offered a free pipe to the gentleman to end a fine meal with a fine smoke!) These numbers were never reached by any other manufacturer. Even not approximately. | |||
Rossi is also credited with exemplary social features. The company maintained a well equipped hospital ward, the employees enjoyed large dining rooms and showers after work. There were shops where they could buy the products of some Rossi owned farms from the environment at subsidised prices. For the youngest children there was a kindergarten and the elder ones could spend their school vacations in a holiday camp named after the founder’s wife Marisa. | |||
From appr. 1946 up to the end '''Ferdinando Rossi II''', a grandchild of the founder, headed the company. But after World War II the world of the pipe changed dramatically. Especially in Italy, where those big pipe factories mainly turned out pipes for the lower priced segments of the international mass markets. The demand for these pipes shrunk considerably as more and more smokers turned to cigarettes. Rossi got into this vortex as well. Little by little the number of pipes produced sank. This evolution was accelerated by the upcoming fame of pipes from Denmark. As well, new Italian brands established after the war like Castello, Brebbia or little later Savinelli operated cleverer and thus were more successful. | |||
So the decline went on through the 1960’s and 1970’s, even though Rossi offered more than 800 possible shapes in dozens of lines and uncounted finishes. Besides the completely machine made pipes there were also some lines of semi-freehands and even quite considerable freehands were made. But all these efforts could not stop the fall anyway. Due to increasing financial difficulties Rossi closed down in 1985, just one year before the 100th anniversary. | |||
Seconds: | |||
* Montechristo | |||
To be continued... | To be continued... | ||