Artistic WoodworkingFirenzeSambuca
In 1968, in San Frediano, two young men learned woodcarving from the masters who were then the finest in Firenze. Fifty-eight years later they still make the furniture entirely in house: the drawing, the bare frame, the lacquer, the gilding. Nothing leaves and comes back halfway through.
Workshop and showroom at Sambuca, Firenze · classical, contemporary and Antica Firenze · everything made to measure, everything in house
A made-to-measure piece of furniture is ordered before it exists. That is why it matters who makes it, and for how long they have been doing so.
L'ARTES was founded in Firenze in 1968, in the San Frediano quarter. In the nineteen-eighties it moved out to the outskirts. Today it is in Sambuca, with the workshop on one street and the showroom on another. It makes made-to-measure furniture in three lines — Classico, Contemporary and Antica Firenze — for houses, villas, hotels and agriturismi, in Italy and abroad.
The company introduces itself starting from the masters, not from the founders. Two young men who become partners and who learn, they write, «with the best masters of the time specialising in carving and woodwork».
The sentence says more than it seems. There is somebody who taught, somebody who learned, and a craft that is still used today. In the nineteen-sixties San Frediano was the place where that chain really existed.
Almost all the Florentine workshops have had to leave the centre, and almost all of them tell it as a loss. Here it is told as an expansion: the company grows and it needs space.
The practical result can be seen today. The workshop is big enough to hold the entire production cycle inside it. Those who stayed in the centre, in small spaces, have had to split that cycle between several suppliers.
All the work is carried out in house: design, bare frame, lacquering, decoration, gilding by hand.
In art furniture this is where the difference lies. It is one thing to assemble a semi-finished piece lacquered by someone else, quite another to have in house the person who lays the lacquer and the person who applies the gold leaf. They are two distinct crafts, and they are the ones that decide how long a piece of furniture lasts.
There is no price on the company's website. There is a button that says Add to quotation. A wardrobe built to the measurements of a wall, with the wood and the finish chosen by the client, does not have a list price.
In the showroom the same thing is said more plainly: you go there to see and choose materials, measurements, fabrics and details. The quotation comes after those choices, not before.
On the website there are four signed testimonials. Two of them say something concrete.
The second recounts something the website does not highlight anywhere: the furniture arrived in Roma on the company's own vehicle, and it was they who went to assemble it.
Six stages. Not one of them leaves the company.
Project drawings following the client's brief, miniatures, sketches, designs on floor plans. The company gives its furnishing consultancy free of charge.
The piece is born in wood, to the measurements decided. It is the stage where the carving learned in San Frediano is still handwork.
Traditional and modern lacquering, with artisan techniques. The lacquer is what separates a piece of furniture that ages well from one that flakes.
Final decoration, customised as well, and gilding carried out by the master artisans of the workshop. No machine does this stage.
In the showroom you look at and choose materials, measurements, fabrics and details. A piece of furniture is decided by seeing it, not by leafing through a price list.
Transport and assembly are done by the company, outside Tuscany as well. It makes sense: a made-to-measure piece badly assembled is no longer made to measure.
A company that works to measure might have no collections at all. L'ARTES has three, and they serve to tell the client where you start from before changing everything.
The company's catalogue runs from wardrobes to mirrors, from beds to bathroom furniture. Below are the three lines and a few pieces from each: they are the ones the company shows in its own portfolio.
The line the company was born with: carving, traditional proportions, finishes drawn by hand. It is where the craft of 1968 shows most clearly.
Eight families, each with a name of its own. It is the part of the catalogue that shows the workshop has not stood still within its own repertoire.
One-off pieces made by hand, with an antiqued lacquer conceived for farmhouses, agriturismi and Tuscan rural settings. A new piece of furniture that has to look as if it had always been there.
The company's portfolio is divided by destination, not by style. It is the way of thinking of someone who works to commission.
The home, which remains the main client: bedrooms, living areas, bathrooms. Furniture that has to fit inside a floor plan that already exists.
The whole project, where the furnishing is designed together with the rooms and customisation is the specification.
Hotels and accommodation businesses. Two things count here: repeating the same finish across dozens of rooms, and standing up to use by different people every night.
The natural context of the Antica Firenze line: Tuscan farmhouses where a piece of furniture just made has to look as if it had been there for twenty years.
Two distinct portfolios on the company's website. The kitchen is the piece of furniture that wears out first, and it is where the in-house work shows best.
A separate distribution line, for Tuscany: bioethanol appliances in clay and volcanic stone. It is a product the company brings to the territory.
A family company that keeps names to itself: the website tells the roles and does not name the people.
Two young artisans who later became partners, brought up with the masters of Florentine carving.
The continuity is written in a single line and without emphasis: the traditions are «today handed down and kept by the children». It is the second generation at work.
The team that covers the whole in-house cycle. Among them the masters who carry out the gilding by hand, which in art furniture is a speciality in itself.
The number you ring to ask for an appointment in the showroom.
The furniture can be seen on Tuscany Market Hub and the quotation is asked of the company: for made-to-measure work direct purchase would make no sense.
Classico, Contemporary and Antica Firenze, plus the Medicea 055, Compendium Florence Collection and Ville sull'Arno catalogues. The website speaks four languages: Italian, English, Russian and Chinese.
At the Fortezza da Basso in Firenze, from 24 April to 1 May. In the same period the company also runs a temporary store at I Gigli.
The company expands and leaves the heart of Firenze for the outskirts. The workshop gains the space needed to keep all the processes inside.
Two young artisans, trained by the best carving masters of the time, open the business in the quarter that was then the artisan heart of the city.
Two addresses in the same village, and they are two different things: one is where it is made, the other is where it is chosen.
Via A. Burri, 8 50028 Sambuca — Firenze
Via Sangallo, 23 50028 Sambuca — Firenze By appointment. There are also some items at outlet prices.
No, and it is the craft that works this way. On Tuscany Market Hub the pieces can be seen — photograph, measurements, profile — but not bought: the quotation is requested from the company. Measurements, wood, finish and fabric are chosen every time, and until you know which wall the piece is going on there is no price.
Design, bare frame, lacquering, decoration and gilding are carried out in house. In art furniture it is the difference that weighs most, because lacquer and gold leaf are the two stages usually contracted out.
One-off pieces made by hand with an antiqued lacquer, conceived for farmhouses, agriturismi and Tuscan rural settings.
Eight: Cool, Coco, Vintage, Elegance, Fashion, Infinity, Royal and Stone.
Yes, in the showroom in Via Sangallo in Sambuca, by appointment. That is where materials, measurements, fabrics and details are chosen, and there are also some items at outlet prices.
No. The portfolio is divided by destination: residential, luxury villas, hospitality, agriturismo, plus the kitchens. Indeed the company's contact form distinguishes between private client, retailer and architecture practice.
Yes, and they do the assembly themselves. Among the testimonials on the website there is a delivery to Roma on the company's own vehicle with assembly on site.
Since 1968, founded in Firenze in the San Frediano quarter. Today it is in its second generation.
Here we tell you who makes the furniture, how they make it and where. There are the pieces, each with its own page and its own photographs: viewable and not purchasable, because the quotation is requested from L'ARTES. No shipping to manage, no extra step between whoever orders and whoever builds.
This profile is part of the archive for Artistic Woodworking. All the producers in the network.