Carlo Apollo turns wood into art. The idea of starting the API collection (Antichi Pavimenti Italiani) came from his creative personality, chacterised by a care for the past and love for his Land’s culture.
Carlo Apollo constantly creates beauty, but he also never stops generating and conveying emotions. These emotions are shaped into marvellous floors, which adorn some of the finest and most beautiful mansions in the world. He is not an ordinary designer: his perspective is original, innovative and unconventional. He is a visionary observer, who is able to see the poetry of shapes beyond the raw material. He considers the different nuances of timber like a palette that he uses to paint and decorate certain environments. His strong points are his passion for his job and his knowledge of materials. This knowledge allows him to draw inspiration in order to envision new possibilities.
Carlo Apollo owes much of his 40-year-long career in interior design to his masters, Renzo Mongiardino and Mario di Donato, great interpreters XX century Italian architecture.
Materiale: legno
Alberto Giordano
Alberto Giordano was born in Genoa. He is a luthier and historian of italian violin making, renowned in the whole world.
After graduating at the International Violin-Making School of Cremona, he returned definitively to Genoa in 1987 and opened his workshop, where he still works.
In 1990, he was one of the founding members of the Italian Luthiers Association. Since 1994, he has been working on the conservation project for the “Canon” violin, crafted by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, which had belonged to Niccolò Paganini and is now the property of the City of Genoa. In 2015, he obtained the Master Degree with honours and ‘publication recommended’ in History of Art from the University of Genova.
Some of his instruments have been acquired by the Oslo Dextra Foundation and by other private collectors. Alberto has been the author of many publications and collaborates with the magazine “The Strad”, “Archi Magazine” and with the Violin Museum of Cremona.
Every bowed string musician is welcome in his laboratory in Genoa: he pays the same respect and attention to renowned soloists as to children who have just started this wonderful avocation.
Antica Manifattura Cappelli
Antica Manifattura Cappelli is the only hat workshop to obtain the recognition of Historical Shop of Rome. The Cirri family established it in 1936, and therefore, it is the oldest hatter in the city. In 2003 Patrizia Fabri took over the business, maintaining the tradition of handmade hats.
The product is made to measure according to the specific demands, personality and face of the customer. From the original wooden frames, the hat is created following ancient manual processes combined with innovative elements, in order to always stay in line with current fashion trends.
E. Rancati
Founded in Milan in 1864, E. Rancati is one of the longest-standing and most authoritative companies in the field of prop making for cinema, theatre, and television. For over a century and a half, directors, set designers, and costume designers from around the world have relied on its workshops for the creation, rental, and adaptation of objects intended for the stage: weapons and armor, furniture, decorative elements, jewelry, and costume accessories capable of accurately recreating multiple historical periods, from the origins of humankind to the present day.
The company’s origins date back to the Milanese theatrical prop workshop of Pietro Zaffaroni and Giulia Sormani, suppliers, among others, to Teatro alla Scala. In 1864, following her husband’s death, Giulia inherited the business and, after marrying the sculptor Edoardo Rancati -professor at the Accademia di Brera- founded E. Rancati & C., involving also her brothers Angelo and Giuseppe Sormani. From the outset, the workshop combined artistic knowledge and technical expertise, laying the foundations for a tradition that would span four generations of the family.
In 1875, Angelo Sormani opened a branch in Rome, expanding the company’s reach, which in 1892 received a significant award at the Chicago World’s Fair. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Romolo Sormani collaborated with leading figures of culture and performing arts -including Puccini, Mascagni, Toscanini, Savinio, De Chirico, and Prampolini- further consolidating Rancati’s role within the European theatrical scene.
From the 1930s onwards, the business gradually expanded into cinema, initiating collaborations with major international productions. In the company’s workshops, now led by Cristina and Romolo, skilled artisans transform metal, wood, leather, and innovative materials such as resins and polyurethanes into strikingly realistic stage objects.
From masterpieces of Italian cinema such as Rome, Open City and La Dolce Vita to international productions like Ben-Hur, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones, E. Rancati’s work continues to shape, with artisanal ingenuity and historical precision, an extraordinary “dream factory.”