Fratelli Traversari

It is not easy nowadays to find an artisan company that has proudly reached its fourth generation: the Fratelli Traversari company is one of the few workshops that continues a tradition of craftsmanship that began at the end of the 19th century.

The history of the Fratelli Traversari company began in Florence with the founder Arturo around the end of the 1870s when it was just a small souvenir shop in Via Ser Ventura Monaci, in the Piazza Ferrucci area, but already specialised in high quality micromosaic costume jewellery.

From 1944, the business passed into the hands of Arturo's two sons, Alfredo and Aldo, (hence the name Fratelli Traversari) who, in Via Pindemonte, continued the successful production of earrings, rings, brooches, bracelets, frames and crosses in micromosaic.

This technique, which originated in Rome at the end of the 18th century, uses instead of the traditional square tesserae, the so-called 'teghe' (thin rods of spun enamel glass in various shapes and colours) obtained by placing Murano glass plates in a special kiln which, thanks to the spinner's skill, are fused together to obtain different colours and shaped into various shapes: plates, rose petals, daisies, myosotis, leaves and many others.

Later the business moved to Via Lorenzo Bellini and from the seventies the management passed into the hands of Alfredo's son, Franco, who, at the age of just twenty-five, started the production of micro-mosaic, cut glass and Florentine commesso in semi-precious stones.

For some years now, Franco's two children, Daniele and Letizia, have also been actively involved in the company and, together with their cousin Lorenzo, who specialises in semi-precious stone mosaic, have brought a breath of fresh air to the workshop.