since time immemorial the alessi family has been firmly established on lake orta. over the course of one and a half centuries, pewter has given way to other metals: brass, nickel, silver, aluminium and then stainless steel, whose cycle of development is still running it's course. yet during this period neither the type nor the nature of the objects themselves have changed and along the shores of lake san giulio, among the romanesque churches and the baroque chapels, the household goods factories have become a precise point of reference, leaving their strong social and cultural imprint on the whole area.
one of those early craftsmen/small businessmen was giovanni alessi.
this deep-rooted, hard, traditional and perhaps even inward-looking manufacturing tradition has blossomed into a business venture characterized by constant innovation, open to experimentation and to the paradoxical results of casting from a poetic mould. alessi has changed from being a "workshop for the working of brass and nickel silver plates, with foundry" (so read the sign over the stand at the first milan trade fairs in the 1920's) into one of the "factories of italian design". the change from a metallurgical and mechanical industry into a workshop actively researching the field of applied arts has been a gradual one over several decades. it has been an exciting process which, quite possibly, could serve as a possible model for the evolution of many kinds of industry in the consumer society.
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