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Victoria Arduino >>
La Pavoni >>
Faema >>
Bezzera >>
Simonelli >>
La Cimbali >>
Rancilio >>
Tarvisium >>
La Marzocco >>
Dorio >>
Universal >>
La San Marco >>
Gaggia >>
The history of a brand can help to understand or better identify the historical developments and the evolution of a company, and it is certainly useful to build something upon the experience of others.
Victoria Arduino
Victoria Arduino was created in Turin in 1905. The company had the merit of spreading across Italy and the world the Italian espresso coffee machines, which were the first in world to have a steam-powered engine. The founder, Mr. Pier Teresio Arduino, a real gentleman of great intelligence and of great social sensibility, dedicated the name of the trademark to his wife, Victoria. A pioneer like Mr. Arduino, who intended to develop a production of high quality and of operative espresso coffee machines, couldn’t help choosing the “golden eagle” as his brand symbol. This logo, realized in hand-chiselled bronze, is still today an imitated icon and a reference for all producers and collectors in the world.
The first brand coffee machine, known as “column-shaped model”, was produced in copper and brass, with a cylindrical form. The mere technical aspect had to cohabit with an attractive aesthetics, based on functional and decorative principles, as it was a massive element used also to catalyse the interest of bar or cafés customers. For functional reasons, as the boiler had a vertical structure, it is clear that the column-like shape was the most logic solution for the realization of the machine body. The polished volume so realized, enriched with shiny materials and relief decorations, made it an outstanding machine on bar and café counters, a really impressive device. But Mr. Pier Teresio Arduino did not limit himself to manufacture and market coffee machines. He also devoted himself to enhance and cultivate the image of his company. In this respect, he relied on the contribution of important artists and designers, whose creations contributed to make the trademark famous for all the century. Among the others, we should remember one of the best-known commercial poster designers in Europe, Leonetto Capiello, who created a brand image which obtained a wide consensus.
At that time, the fashion of drinking espresso coffee rapidly spread into all cafés and into the most refined patisseries of Europe. In 1920, Victoria Arduino company opened subsidiaries all over the world, and became more and more known and appreciated by coffee market. But, as most of Italian industrial plants, with the outburst of the World War II, the company had to reduce its production, to fully restart in the postwar period.
And if the life of a tree
And its branches and trunk grow upwards above the land,
Its roots extend underneath.
And this means that the past nourishes the future.
Heaven help those who do not cultivate the memory:
They are people who sow not the sweep of fields
But a wasteland of cement.
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La Pavoni Milano 1905
This long established company of the industry of coffee machines production was founded under the initiative of Mr. Desiderio Pavoni. In 1905, by drawing inspiration from a patent by Eng. Luigi Bezzera of 1902, he developed the design for the model denominated “Ideale”, it was the first espresso coffee machine. The first brand models, manufactured in a small workshop in Via Parini in Milan, had a vertical structure and were in chromium-plated brass. The coffee machines made by La Pavoni brand were sold at the rhythm of one per day. La Pavoni represented the first Italian company collaborating with major representatives of the Italian industrial design. Mr. Gio Ponti signed in 1949 the design of the first coffee machine with a horizontal boiler produced by La Pavoni, denominated "La Cornuta", for the evidence of the coffee supply groups, which extended from the cylindrical boiler, making the machine interior works transparent to the observer. The company continued to collaborate with other important architects such as Fornaroli, Rosselli, Munari, and Mari who spread the made-in-Italy style.
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Faema
In a short period of time, Faema brand imposed itself in the market thanks to the high technological and qualitative level of its products, but the turning point for the company growth was the year 1961, when the “E61” model was launched into Italy. This was the first coffee machine, incorporating an electromechanical pumping system – in replacement of the manual or hydraulic piston systems, which up to that time constituted the solely functioning mechanisms – and an innovative brewing system. The success of this new model was so incredible that in a few years Faema brand gained a considerable quota of the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and South-American markets. In those years, the prestige of Faema trademark overcame the “borders” of the industry and gained the consensus of a vast public of cycle race fans. This sport competition was very appreciated in Europe at that time, and the Italian brand became very famous thanks to the sponsorship of great champions like Merckx, Gaul, Poblet, Van Looy, and Clerici.
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Bezzera
Bezzera Milan, 1901. "Caffè Espresso": It was 1901 when, in Milan, Luigi Bezzera designed this revolutionary process to prepare coffee and the machine to brew it. This was the start of one of the best-known Italian industry traditions in the world. Bezzera company was the only producer in the world of coffee machines with "BEZZERA" trademark since 1901.
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Simonelli 1936
The first professional espresso coffee machine conceived, designed and manufactured by engineer Orlando Simonelli in his workshop in Tolentino was “Simonelli” model of 1936. The machine was stylistically coherent with the aesthetic values of that time and was technically innovative and really advanced. While other producers still installed the lever group into the coffee machines, Simonelli was the first to use a pump system, which assured a continuous supply of coffee. Undoubtedly, it was a revolutionary system for that time and today it is still installed in the best world espresso coffee machines. The philosophy of realizing technically innovative coffee machines, with a particular attention for the design and the materials, at the basis of the first device produced by engineer Simonelli, remained unchanged in the course of the brand production history.
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La Cimbali
In 1912, Mr. Giuseppe Cimbali started his activity in a coppersmith’s and plumber’s workshop, in the centre of Milan, which supplied mechanic parts for coffee machine companies.
In the Thirties, after taking over one of these companies, he started his own production. He soon managed to develop a successful production and to enter the international market.
In 1962, La Cimbali started the collaboration with designers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni who designed the “Pitagora” model, which was awarded at the prestigious Italian design contest “Compasso Oro”.
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Rancilio Milano
The company was founded in Parabiago, in 1929, by Mr. Roberto Rancilio. In 1931, Mr. Rancilio patented and produced a professional coffee machine which established in the market this minor Italian trademark.
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La Tarvisium
Founded by Mr. Fregnan in 1947, in Treviso, during the postwar years, this Italian brand focused its attention on the design and craftsman’s quality. In the early Sixties, the company changed the brand name and became Elektra. The new brand continued the company tradition.
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La Marzocco Firenze
In about 1927, the workshop "F.lli Bambi" was opened by brothers Bambi. The two brothers chose as symbol of their trademark a “lion sitting with an iris” (the coat of arms of Florence), as synonym of victory and conquest. The brand was named after "La Marzocco". This became a well established quality brand of made-in-Italy production.
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Dorio Udine
The “Officine Cav. Antonio Dorio” (Antonio Dorio’s workshop) were founded in 1925 in the city centre of Udine. This brand produced very interesting coffee machine models in terms of design. The company has stopped its production in 1970s.
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Universal Milano
This great long established brand founded in the Twenties, in the heart of Milan, was well-known for all the period between 1920 and 1960, for the excellent quality of its production. The company was closed down in the late Sixties.
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La San Marco
With the long established trademark of the “winged lion”, symbol of the ancient Republic of Venice, founded by brothers Romanut in 1920, in Udine, this brand launched into the market, in the Thirties, a model of great success - La San Marco “model 900”. The slogan used to promote the machine was "Africa has brought coffee to America, America has given it to the world, La San Marco make it taste to the world peoples".
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Gaggia
This Italian brand of espresso coffee machines for professional and household usage was founded in 1947 by Mr. Achille Gaggia. He realized the patent which created the modern coffee machine with coffee cream, without the use of steam pressure. His brilliant idea was to use water pressure through the ground coffee, so that water flowing under pressure could produce that cream that made Italian espresso famous all across the world.
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