Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi

Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi (1767-1855) was a Genoese furniture maker, best known as the inventor of the Chiavari chair.

Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi was born in Chiavari in the Republic of Genoa in 1767, the son of a cooper. He was called "il Campanino" ("the bell ringer") because his grandfather was the bell-ringer of the Bacezza church.^[1] Descalzi was apprenticed to one of the best master carpenters of Chiavari, and became a master craftsman himself.^[2] In 1795 the Descalzi brothers opened a furniture workshop.^[3] In 1796 he received a silver medal for two wooden chests of drawers from the Chiavari Società Economica, which had been founded five years earlier by the Marquis Stefano Rivarola.^[1] Descalzi introduced the use of a polished slab of San Giacomo slate as a tabletop, a low-cost alternative to marble.^[4]

In 1807 Rivarola challenged Descalzi to design a new, modern chair based on a chair that he had brought from Paris.^[1] Descalzi created a simple, practical and elegant design for a cherrywood chair.^[3] The chairs are both light and robust.^[5] Descalzi exploited traditional knowledge, paid strict attention to quality and developed new manufacturing techniques.^[2] Chairs using the "Chiavarine" design became extremely popular and were purchased by many of the monarchs of the time.^[1] Descalzi's furniture designs won numerous medals at trade shows.^[6] His sons Emanuele and Giacomo and their descendants continued the chair making industry that he had founded.^[1] Many other factories opened in Chiavari and the surrounding towns, and some continue to make furniture today.^[7]