DESIGN TRENDS - SAN LORENZO by Cristina Morozzi

Silver Artefacts

 The making of silver artefacts is an antique art, made by craftsmen involved in virtuosic manufacturing, specialised in the production of variations of classic forms. Thanks to the impulse of the owner Ciro Cacchione, the Milanese label San Lorenzo renewed itself.

Famous contemporary architects and designers, still following the material's nature, were asked to create objects for the table and the kitchen with innovative and functional forms. In the '70s, a new style of silverware was born. Silver becomes ductile material for experimentation, to use, not only for decorative objects but also for domestic and every day's accessories.

It is important to remember the pure silver and the sheer iron pot set, Pan999, designed by Afra and Tobia Scarpa. The designers disclosed the antibacterial and conduction properties of silver, that resulted as a better material than copper, able to uniform the diffusion of the warmth, to cook at low temperature, with no energy waste.

Designers and architects, as Franco Albin and Franca Helg, Maria Luisa Belgiososo, Antonio Piva, Afra e Tobia Scarpa, Massimo e Lella Vignelli, not specialised in the creation of ornaments,  were asked to design a collection of jewels. The first piece signed by Afra and Tobia Scarpa, was a collier made by round silver pearls, tied with a  coloured silk thread, to celebrate the 20th  anniversary of the company.

The modernity and the elegance of San Lorenzo's jewels are based on their invisible attention to design techniques that make the new ornaments comparable to the traditional ones and classify reason and technology as positive qualities. In October 1995, the Vicotira&Albert museum in London dedicated a monographic exhibition to San Lorenzo,  with a substantial catalogue, published by Electa, written by essential critics. At the end of the exhibition, many pieces were included in the permanent museum's collection, exposed in the Silver Gallery.