Duron, Nieri & Bacci Chalkware

The Besagni chalkware figurine collection can be found here and below is my research into Bruno Besagni..

BIRTH YEAR AND FATHER’S NAME

FreeBMD gives September 1925 as Bruno’s birth quarter. The Camden New Journal obituary and Spitalfields Life profile both confirm birth year 1925, consistent with FreeBMD. And a Spitalfields Life interview quotes Bruno saying he was born at “48 Kings Cross Rd next to the Police Station.” The FreeBMD entry gives Holborn as the registration district, which is consistent with that address.

The FreeBMD site gives his father as “Giovanni”. The Camden New Journal obituary confirms his parents as Anita and Giovanni Besagni. However, the Spitalfields Life article shows a photograph captioned “Bruno’s father, Guiseppe Besagni, an asphalt layer”. The Spitalfields Life 2011 comments section includes a response from “Johnny B,” who identifies himself as “the youngest of the Besagni family” and states “my father Giovanni’s Family immigrated to London from Terruzi, Morffaso.” This suggests Giovanni may be a different generation entirely, or an anglicised/substituted name. The photograph caption from the family’s own archive (held by Spitalfields Life) showing “Guiseppe” as Bruno’s father is the stronger primary source.

THE “MS. FERRARI” MARRIAGE

The site records Bruno married “a Ms. Ferrari” in Holborn, June 1949. The Spitalfields Life profile of Olive makes this much more specific: Olive’s maiden name was Ferrari and her grandfather was Giovanni Ferrari, known as Maestro Ferrari, who arrived from Borgotaro in 1880 to teach English to Italian immigrants. Olive was born in 1925 in Gospel Oak, the daughter of Guiseppe Ferrari (known as Joe) and Netta Oxley (an Englishwoman). So the “Ms. Ferrari” Bruno married was Olive Ferrari, born 1925 in Gospel Oak.

FAMILY ORIGINS: TERRUZZI, MORFASSO, PIACENZA PROVINCE

The Besagni family did not originate in Tuscany or the Lucca region. A comment posted on Spitalfields Life in 2011 by “Johnny B,” who explicitly identifies himself as Bruno’s younger brother, states: “my father Giovanni’s Family immigrated to London from Terruzi, Morffaso.” He adds: “The main families of that area were in fact Besagni, Obertelli, and Ongeri. I still visit Terruzi each year.”

He had a brother called Renaldo who was born in December 1922 and a sister, Rita, in December 1923.

Terruzzi (also spelled Terruzi and shown as the red marker on trhe map below) is a hamlet in the comune of Morfasso, in the Province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy.

This is not Tuscany, not Lucca (see bottom of the map) where other famous designers were from, and not therefore the figurinai tradition. It is a distinctly different migration stream: the Piacenza/Emilia-Romagna community in London, many of whom came as asphalt layers, ice cream sellers, and labourers rather than as craft figurinai.

Bruno’s father, is photographed with the caption “asphalt layer” — consistent with this Piacentino pattern of migration rather than the Lucca figurine-making tradition.Bruno Besagni did not bring a hereditary figurinai tradition from his family. He acquired the craft from the Clerkenwell Italian community, specifically by working as a teenager at Giovanni Pagliai’s Great Sutton Street factory.

Bruno’s connection to the plaster figure tradition was therefore apprenticeship within the Clerkenwell Italian network, not family inheritance and therefore another way into the UK market distinct from both the Lucca figurinai inheritance (Paoli, Bacci) and the Lohnberg commercial-entrepreneur model. He was a second-generation London Italian of Piacentino origin who was apprenticed into the Lucca craft tradition through the Clerkenwell community workshop network.

THE TRAINING: GIOVANNI PAGLIAI’S FACTORY

Bruno’s own words from the Spitalfields Life interview: “I got a job as artistic sprayer at the factory in Great Sutton St belonging to Giovanni Pagliai who came from Lucca in Florence where they make all the traditional statues. I took to it at once, I was fairly artistic and all my life I’ve been involved in art. I worked there for a couple of years from fourteen to sixteen, that’s where I met my wife Olive.” and is a direct primary-source connection between Bruno Besagni and the Pagliai family

The Pagliai page notes that Leo Pagliai was an Italian artist from Lucca, possibly living in Great Sutton Street in the 1950s. Bruno’s account confirms that a Giovanni Pagliai was running a statue factory at Great Sutton Street — and Bruno started there around 1939-1940 (age 14, born 1925). This pre-dates the chalkware registration period by roughly fifteen years and establishes that the Pagliai operation at Great Sutton Street was active and employing staff from at least the late 1930s. The Giovanni and Leo Pagliai may be related (father and son, or brothers – to be confirmed).

WORLD WAR II: BRITISH CITIZEN BY BIRTH, EXEMPT FROM INTERNMENT

This is one of the most historically interesting details. Bruno’s own account: “When the war began they were all imprisoned. Most of the staff were Italian, and one day a squad car pulled up and arrested everybody. They were undesirables, they came under section 28(b) — you were imprisoned but you could have food sent in. As my father was born here, I was a British citizen, so everybody but me got interned”. Therefore: (1) the Pagliai factory workforce was interned wholesale in 1940 as enemy aliens; (2) Bruno, though Italian-community, was British-born and therefore exempt; (3) his father was also British-born, meaning the family had been in the UK for at least two generations before Bruno. This pushes the Besagni presence in London back to at least the early 1900s, consistent with the 1919 emigration date on Bruno’s mother’s identity card shown in the Spitalfields Life photographs (suggesting his mother arrived in 1919, while his father was already here).

Bruno goes on to describe being called up at 18 but unable to fight because of an uncle in the Italian army. He worked on a farm at Chepstow with Conscientious Objectors, then in a munitions factory in Ruislip. He was briefly signed by Fulham FC. After the war, he entered the statue business with a partner in Camden Town, before establishing his own factory.

THE BUSINESS: CHRONOLOGY AND LOCATIONS

The post-war Camden Town venture (c.1945-early 1950s): Bruno describes starting “a little company in Camden Town” with a partner after the war, making elephants, dogs and cats. This pre-dates the Caledonian Road factory. He describes the purchase tax issue (125% on figurines; fruit bowls were exempt) which shaped what the business made. This is the same purchase tax environment that affected all the UK chalkware producers.

Caledonian Road factory (1950s): Bruno bought his own factory on the Caledonian Road in the 1950s. The single registered BT design from his address gives the address as 101 Caledonian Road, London N1. At the Caledonian Road factory he employed around four staff and described himself as a “reproduction artist” making Beethoven, Shakespeare, Cupid, Hermes, and Michelangelo’s David alongside lamps and decorative figurines. He also made and repaired devotional statues for churches throughout this period.

Stratford factory (1960s-70s): Bruno later moved to a factory in Stratford, where he worked with his brother Remo and his son Tony. The Camden New Journal obituary confirms this sequence: “He bought his own factory in Caledonian Road in the 1950s, later moving to Stratford.” The Spitalfields Life 2012 follow-up article (when a collector named Rupert Blanchard identified Bruno’s plaster horses) shows photographs of the Stratford factory and confirms Bruno was producing cast horses there in the 1960s-70s, the same horses sold as lamp bases.

CHALKWARE PIECES

The 2012 Spitalfields Life article describes a collector buying what turned out to be a Besagni plaster horse lamp from Cheshire Street market, and Bruno recognising it as his own work: “Yes, it’s definitely one of mine! I painted this one.” His horses were well-known lamp bases. The Pamono and Vinterior listings currently on the market describe equestrian lamp bases signed “BB” with meticulous hand-painting, consistent with his stated signature.

Bruno described his factory output as Beethoven, Shakespeare, Cupid, Hermes, Michelangelo’s David, and animal lamp bases. His signed “BB” mark is the authentication indicator. The BT-registered bust may be the only formally registered Besagni design, but his commercial output was substantially larger. His work falls into two streams: (a) decorative figurines and lamps for the consumer market (1940s-1970s), and (b) devotional and restoration plaster work for churches (throughout his career).

THE “BB” SIGNATURE

Pieces signed with an engraved “BB” on the reverse are attributable to Bruno Besagni. This distinguishes them from unsigned pieces. The Pamono listing for a 1970s equestrian horse lamp explicitly identifies the “BB” engraving as the authenticity marker. The BT registration number on any registered pieces (the head and shoulder bust) provides a second verification route via the National Archives.

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY WORK

Alongside the commercial operation, Bruno was the primary restorer of devotional statues for St Peter’s Italian Church in Clerkenwell throughout his career. He reproduced the Madonna of Mount Carmel in fibreglass when the original deteriorated. He created floats for the annual Italian Procession. This religious and community restoration work ran parallel to the commercial figurine business throughout his career and continued long after the commercial operation wound down.

THE CAVALIERE: ITALIAN KNIGHTHOOD

In November 1978, Bruno was awarded the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Order of the Star of Italy) — an Italian state honour for services to the Italian community abroad. The citation is for community services. By this point he and Olive had been heavily involved for over a decade in the Mazzini-Garibaldi Club (set up for Italian workers in London), and Bruno had created floats for the Italian Procession each year. The knighthood was presented in 1978; Bruno died in 2017 having held it for 39 years. The Camden New Journal describes him at his funeral as “holder of an Italian knighthood.”

DEATH DATE

The Spitalfields Life article published 17 May 2017 opens with “I was saddened to learn of the death of Bruno Besagni last weekend.” His wife Olive died 12 December 2016. Bruno therefore died in early May 2017, aged 91. The Camden New Journal obituary confirms he died “last month aged 91” from the perspective of its publication (which the Islington Tribune mirrors). Both papers were covering the funeral at St Peter’s Italian Church, Clerkenwell. Death can be confirmed as May 2017, aged 91, in London.

OLIVE BESAGNI – SOME EXTRA INTERESTING INFORMATION

My site mentions Olive briefly. For completeness relevant to the chalkware research:

  • Olive Ferrari, born 1925, Gospel Oak. Granddaughter of Giovanni Ferrari (Maestro Ferrari), who arrived from Borgotaro in 1880.
  • Olive met Bruno at the Pagliai factory in Great Sutton Street, where she was painting lace and gold lines onto religious statues at around the same time as Bruno was working as artistic sprayer (both approximately 14-16 years old, c.1939-41).
  • Olive went on to a career in film editing (Realist Films, Pathe, Kingsway College) and later published “A Better Life” (oral histories of the Italian community in Clerkenwell). This book is a primary source for the Clerkenwell Italian community and may contain additional material on the plaster figure-making trade.
  • Olive died 12 December 2016. Bruno died May 2017. They were married 68 years.
  • A reader contacting Spitalfields Life after seeing the Besagni profile there described buying what turned out to be a Bruno Besagni lamp, then tracking down his daughter to tell her about it. The daughter confirmed the BT registration details: “designed and registered by your father, Bruno Besagni, in 1961, from the Caledonian Rd.” This confirms the single BT registration was from 1961, consistent with the Caledonian Road period.

[UPDATE June 2020]. I had a lovely email from Cath Coffey who had found out more abut Bruno. She says “I managed to find out that he had a factory on the Caledonian Rd. He was married to Olive, and both of them had very interesting and full lives. Bruno was knighted by the Italian government for services to the Italian community, and Olive worked in film editing and wrote books chronicling the lives of their community. Sadly, they both passed away in 2016/7 after 68 years of marriage.”. She also provides 2 links detailing more info on their history. Thanks Cath!

http://westendextra.com/article/bruno-their-knight-with-film-star-looks

Olive Besagni, Assistant Film Editor

SOURCES AND LINKS

Archive