Franco Scalamandré
Encyclopedia
He was the son of Giuseppe Scalamandré and Maria Teresa Ambrosina Scalamandré. His father was a broker of silk, and a textile importer in Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
.
Education, immigration and founding Scalamandré Silks
1923 Scalamandré completed a doctorateDoctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in engineering from the Royal Polytechnic School of Naples, and in 1924 immigrated to the United States. In 1925 he worked as a draftsman for the Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is a nuclear power company, offering a wide range of nuclear products and services to utilities throughout the world, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs...
in Newark, New Jersey. In 1926 he began teaching drawing at the E. A. Seeley School of Decoration in Paterson, New Jersey. In 1929 Scalamandré married Flora Baranzelli a designer and painter. The same year they formed Scalamandré Silks. Founding of the company coincided with a growing movement in the United States of restoring historic houses and furnishings. Scalamandré began recreating historic fabrics based on the collections of historic homes and museums.
Scalamandré Museum of Textiles
In 1936 Scalamandré opened the Scalamandré Museum of Textiles, located in the company's Manhattan showroom. The museum displayed the company's collection of historic European and American textiles. The museum continued in operation, with a mission of showing historic textile documents to the public, often alongside the company's careful reproductions, until the late 1960s.Recreating historic textiles
Scalamandré and his company reproduced historic textile documents for prestigious homes and museums including the White HouseWhite House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
, many state houses, governors' mansions, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, and Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to...
in San Simeon, California
San Simeon, California
San Simeon is a census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California. Its position along State Route 1 is approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, each of those cities being roughly 230 mi away...
. A 1989 exhibition at the Paley Design Center of the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science titled "Scalamandre: Preserving America's Textile Heritage, 1929-1989" credited Franco Scalamandré and his firm with having recreated over 600 historic textile reproductions.
Work at the White House
Scalamandré was commissioned to produce silk fabric for the White HouseWhite House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
restoration during the administration of president John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. In 1961 the firm was contacted to provide material for the White House. American interior decorator Sister Parish
Sister Parish
Sister Parish was an American interior decorator and socialite. She was the first interior designer brought in to decorate the Kennedy White House, a position that was soon usurped by French interior designer Stéphane Boudin...
performing initial redecoration work primarily on the residential floor of the White House specified several stock fabrics from Scalamandré Silks. As the White House restoration began to focus on the more public ceremonial rooms of the State Floor, French interior designer Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S...
of Maison Jansen
Maison Jansen
Maison Jansen was a Paris-based interior decoration office founded in 1880 by Dutch-born Jean-Henri Jansen and continuing in practice until 1989...
was given oversight of the redecoration of the Red Room
Red Room (White House)
The Red Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House, the home of the President of the United States. The room has served as a parlor and music room, and recent presidents have held small dinner parties in it. It has been traditionally decorated in shades of red.The...
, Blue Room
Blue Room (White House)
The Blue Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House, the residence of the president of the United States. It is distinct for its oval shape. The room is used for receptions, receiving lines, and is occasionally set for small dinners...
, East Room, and the fabric selection for the Green Room
Green Room (White House)
The Green Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House, the home of the president of the United States. It is used for small receptions and teas. During a state dinner, guests are served cocktails in the three state parlors before the president, first lady, and visiting...
. Boudin was encouraged to use the American manufacture Scalamandré to recreate several of the historic fabric documents from the library of Maison Jansen, and the recreation of a complex silk lampas
Lampas
Lampas is a type of luxury fabric with a background weft typically in taffeta with supplementary wefts laid on top and forming a design, sometimes also with a "brocading weft". Lampas is typically woven in silk, and often has gold and silver thread enrichment.-History:Lampas weaves were developed...
with an eagle design for the upholstery of a suite of French Empire furniture by cabinetmaker Pierre-Antoine Bellangé
Pierre-Antoine Bellange
Pierre-Antoine Bellangé was a French ébéniste working in Paris. Bellangé held an eminent position among the representatives of the decorative arts at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He gained his master craftsman title on October 24, 1788...
originally acquired by James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
for the Blue Room. This, and the Green Room's complex hand woven watered silk moiré proved most challenging. Samples for the Blue Room's upholstery disappointed First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S...
. White House Chief Usher
White House Chief Usher
White House Chief Usher is the title of the head of household staff and operations at the White House, the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States....
J. B. West
J. B. West
James Bernard West, known as J. B. was Chief Usher of the White House for 12 years, from 1957 to 1969. His best-selling book, Upstairs at the White House , documents his time in the executive mansion, starting in 1941 under Chief Usher Howell G. Crim...
recorded that the Curator of the White House William Voss Elder, III described the sample as looking like a plucked chicken. Samples for the Green Room watered silk wall covering were found to be coarse, too thick, and too regular in comparison with the 18th century sample provided to the firm. Production of both fabrics was quietly moved to the venerable French textile firm Tassinari et Chatel, which had probably woven the Monroe era fabric, originally in crimson. The completed fabric was delivered to the United States by diplomatic pouch avoiding scrutiny by the United States Customs Service
United States Customs Service
Until March 2003, the United States Customs Service was an agency of the U.S. federal government that collected import tariffs and performed other selected border security duties.Before it was rolled into form part of the U.S...
and the controversy of a foreign manufactured product. Scalamandré silks were used in the Blue Room drapery, Red Room walls, drapery, and upholstery.
Subsequent refurbishments of the White House during the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and both Bush administrations used stock and custom woven textiles from Scalamandré workshops. And the firm has provided silk lampas and silk and wool velvets to restoration projects in the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
.
Civic and design recognition
Scalamandré received several design awards including the Gordon Gray Award for Achievement in Preservation from the National Trust for Historic PreservationNational Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an American member-supported organization that was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods through a range of programs and activities, including the publication of Preservation...
and the Thomas Jefferson Award granted by the American Society of Interior Designers
American Society of Interior Designers
The American Society of Interior Designers is the oldest and largest professional association for interior designers. Through education, knowledge sharing, advocacy, community building and outreach, the Society strives to advance the interior design profession and, in the process, to demonstrate...
. He also received numerous civic citations for his work in preserving and recreating historic American textiles including one from The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America
The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America is an American organization composed of women who are descended from an ancestor "who came to reside in an American Colony before 1750, and whose services were rendered during the Colonial Period." The national headquarters of the society is at...
, whose several historic properties Scalamandré's firm helped restore.
External links
- Scalamandré Inc. (requires Macromedia Flash)