-ENRICO MALTONI'S COLLECTION-
over a century of espresso made in Italy

Heaven help the machine which shows
the labour of its work;
even in machines, like in man,
we appreciate the hermetic closure of the body,
the ability in work, the elegance in the effort.
Gio Ponti, 1933

From the enthusiasm of a young Italian collector - Enrico Maltoni -, a travelling exhibition, a book, a website, celebrating one of the most beloved habits of Italian people: espresso coffee.
Over 100 marvellous bar coffee machines saved from time wear and tear have been brought back to life under the visitors' eye in a special exhibition travelling throughout the world.

A journey across the history of coffee industry, through glittering silver-clad Ladies – i.e., espresso coffee machines. We are talking about Espresso made in Italy, a travelling exhibition presenting important and precious coffee machine models produced from 1901 to present day, some of which are real rarities. After 16 years of diligent work, Mr. Maltoni's enthusiasm, culture, curiosity and creativity have given birth to a unique exhibition, celebrating one of the most traditional Italian habits.

Please a coffee!
How much history, culture, inventiveness and craftsmanship hide behind this simple daily habit of most Italians and not only! In recent years, coffee has become a more and more important topic, also in countries and contexts very far from this industry and product.
The attention for aspects not merely related to marketing reasons, but also to culture and tradition has encouraged the industry experts to devote their activity to the search for objects, documents and materials related to the espresso culture.

Mr. Maltoni - born in Forlimpopoli, Italy - is one of them: an enthusiastic researcher and collector in the field of coffee industry. From over 16 years, he has devoted his life to the art of modern and vintage espresso machine restoring and, at the same time, he has been fully engaged in historical, philological and documental researches, allowing him to collect and catalogue over 3,500 documents. Photos, patents, letters, catalogues, vintage posters which the enthusiastic collector has now published in the official Collection website www.espressomadeinitaly.com.

A few people actually know that famous Italian architects and designers have contributed to the realization of the attractive models exhibited. For example, Gio Ponti, Enzo Mari, Marco Zanuso, the brothers Castiglioni, and Bruno Munari just to mention a few of them: they have created "brewing devices" which have become true rarities for collectors. They have marked the evolution of the unmistakable Italian design, and have contributed to the spreading of the Italian espresso coffee consumption in the world.
An engineer from Milan - Luigi Bezzera - was the first one to patent a sophisticated cylindrical coffee machine in 1901 for the brewing of an espresso coffee by using water and steam power. He was then followed by Rancilio, a manufacturing company founded in 1927 by Roberto Rancilio: in the Thirties, he realized the column-shaped model Ottagonale in a perfect Art Deco style - coveted by many collectors.
In the second post-war period, with its Classica 1948, Gaggia replaced the column-shaped model with a piston-lever system. Coffee does not taste bitter and burnt any longer, and becomes the modern "coffee cream".
All this develops in a few years, and coffee flavour gets more and more intense and richer, making the beverage drinkers forget the burnt back-taste, typical of the early Nineteenth century.
Design and quality evolution of coffee brewing for over a century.
Renown brands such as Rancilio, La Pavoni, Cimbali, Gaggia, Faema, and Victoria Arduino develop revolutionary and extremely elegant models, using precious materials like bronze, brass, enamel and hand-chiselled decorative elements, turning these bar espresso machines into true Italian artworks for the brewing of coffee all over the world.

All these design history periods can be discovered in depth by reading and glancing through the pages of Espresso made in Italy 1901-1962, written by Mr. Maltoni and arch. Giuseppe Fabris - now published in the revised and richer second edition. Thanks to this valuable book, the reader can follow step by step the development of bar coffee machines, from the early examples (true metal works in copper and brass, enriched with different stylistic elements between the Art Nouveau and the Art Deco motif repertoire) to the coffee machines which have marked in the Fifties the union between design and industrial production, up to the masterpieces bearing the names of great designers. The book is available in all bookshops or can be purchased online in the website www.espressomadeinitaly.com.
In 2005, Il libro completo del caffè , edited by De Agostini and realized in cooperation with Maria Linardi and Manuel Terzi, a book devoted to coffee enthusiasts.
Thanks to its wide iconographic material, the volume describes the history of the world most beloved beverage, starting from the spreading of coffee beans from the Horn of Africa to the Western World, and passing through the cultivation of the Arabian variety, which has improved the coffee production with the introduction of the roasting. The volume includes advise for the purchase, the conservation and the tasting of coffee and a series of recommendations and recipes for the usage of coffee as an ingredient.
 
A further strength of the project aimed to the spreading of the coffee culture is the website www.espressomadeinitaly.com presenting and showing the activity of Mr. Maltoni - a new instrument to implement the mission of spreading and preserving the historical heritage of espresso coffee Italian tradition.
This important online "showroom" is always kept up to date and has become a reference for many collectors and simple coffee enthusiasts in the world, thanks to the multiplicity of its topics.
The virtual museum, the archive, the technical sheets, the documents, the photographic material, the calendar of events, and the videos are just an example of the numerous instruments offered by the website to learn more about the history of bar espresso coffee machine.
From this important philosophy, in 2000 Mr. Maltoni has had the idea of realizing a new project - the travelling exhibition Espresso Made in Italy: history, culture, design, in cooperation with Lavazza, leader in the Italian coffee market and leading company in over 80 Countries all over the world (offering the historical Lavazza sets of coffee cups), and with Eat a Cup by Foodrinks in Forlì. www.foodrinks.it.
The Exhibition has reached 30 destinations inItaly and abroad up to present day.
Thailand, Greece, Turkey, Venezuela, Israel, Russia, United Kingdom and Albania are the places where the Exhibition has benefited from the sponsorship and the important contribution of the Italian Embassies, General Consulates, Italian Culture Institutes and International Institutes for Foreign Commerce in the single Countries.

A showroom of 20 magnificent coffee machines still perfectly functioning - these unique models have been selected by the young Mr. Maltoni as a sample of the design evolution to promote the image of the made-in-Italy production in the world, wisely exhibited in the project designed by arch. Karim Azzabi of Design Network Milan.
Walking among these steel masterpieces on their illuminated stands, accompanied by ad posters and other material, visitors have the feeling of being in an old time Italian café or bar, with the fragrance of coffee, the people's shouting, coming and going. The awesomeness gets even stronger when watching the two videos creating the "setting" for the exhibition: the first video presents a review of coffee scenes or bar scenes from well-known films, such as Casablanca, Accattone, Once upon a time in America, Roma, Amici miei, Star Wars; the second one tells the history of the coffee machines exhibited through the words of the same person who has brought them back to life - Enrico Maltoni.

Recently, Mr. Maltoni has been awarded with the prize SCAE Excellence of Coffee 2006 in the category "The Young Entrepreneur Award", on 20 May 2006 in Bern-Switzerland, in occasion of the ceremony SCAE World of Coffee.
As the only Italian competitor, the young collector has won this internationally-prestigious coffee Award defeating 10 nominees from all over the world.
Objective of the prestigious Association is to provide the right recognition to the success of individuals, without awarding "the best", but showing appraisal for those who have the courage, the imagination or merely "that something" which allows them to excel in the pursuing of coffee excellence and to distinguish themselves in the coffee industry, apart from their status or origin.
This award represents the recognition of the personal commitment, courage and creativity of Mr. Maltoni, which have always characterized the Italian collector's activity, even before becoming one of the most precious collections of the "Italian way of life".