School ended early for Cesare Villari. At the age of 14 he was
already working in a porcelain factory, but he didn’t mind, on
the contrary he was fascinated by that world. Being inquisitive,
he wanted to know everything about creation and production.
He often asked to change place to better understand the molding,
the cooking and every single step in the process.
He was in his 20s and he had already a lot of experience when
a 15 years old girl came into the atelier, her name was Silvia.
She too had a great passion for this job, maybe this brought
them closer. She asked him a lot of questions. They got on so
well that love didn’t take long to come and a few years later
they got married. They felt strong together. Who had the idea?
Who pushed the other to dare? One day they decided to leave
the factory to build a factory on their own. The firm Villari born
on an October morning of 1967. “At the beginning it wasn’t
easy” admits Cesare, but the enthusiasm, supported by an
indomitable will, allowed them to get over all the difficulties.
At the beginning they were only ten, but now about fifty people
work for Villari. Cesare is satisfied, he has had a “great life”:
he built a “great” factory and a “great” family, nowadays his
two daughters Alessandra and Barbara , a son Leone and a son-
in-law Jean Sebastien work for the company. The name Villari
is well known all over the world, there are Villari’s shops in
the most unlikely Countries like Iran, Chechnya, Azerbaijan,
Lithuania and Dagestan but even in the more traditional ones:
Japan, USA, China and, last but not the least, the brand shines
at Harrod’s in London. Every day Silvia and Cesare are at
work, looking for new shapes, trying to improve the technique
and helping their craftsmen to create even more beautiful
objects. The other family members run the administration and
the development of the company. “Is this family work easy?”
Cesare smiles, “It is not always simple, we are in contact every
single day. We must be patient, very patient!” he repeats like if
some recent event had come back to his mind. From the outside
the factory is not outstanding: just some industrial sheds. To
understand you have to enter the atelier where the heart of
the company beats. A very large hall with a profusion of lights
where everything is white, made even more so by a thin layer of
white chalk covering everything. Absolute silence, like in a old
monastery. An incredible amount of objects, similar to the cave
of an alchemist where a strange menagerie might stand out, or
Father Christmas’ workshop who, as an artist, might have given
up producing toys. Here rose petals are shaped, one different
from the other, like in nature, and then they are assembled into
delicate flowers. There, an elephant is being painted in a ugly
green “Don’t worry, it’s gold, but the real colour appears only
after the cooking!”. Over there decorations are applied with
a paintbrush to some goblets. Not far off some little ancient
characters are being dressed. Processions of angels, in ordinate
rows are waiting to be colored, rearing horses do not lose their
balance while waiting to receive their coating of crystals. We
start dreaming. At the end: the big kilns, like supreme altars
Cesare Villari
La fabbrica d’angeli
