Franco Scalamandré (April 15, 1898, Naples, Italy – March 4, 1988,

Plandome Manor, New York Plandome Manor is a Village (New York), village in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. The majority of the village is considered part o ...

) was a co-founder of Scalamandré Inc., a US manufacturer of traditional textiles, decorative textile trims, wall covering, and carpeting. He was the son of Giuseppe Scalamandré and Maria Teresa Ambrosina Scalamandré. His father was a broker of silk, and a textile importer in

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Education, immigration and founding Scalamandré Silks

1923 Scalamandré completed a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in engineering from the Royal Polytechnic School of Naples, and in 1924 immigrated to the United States. In 1925 he worked as a draftsman for the Westinghouse Electric Company in Newark, New Jersey. In 1926 he began teaching drawing at the E. A. Seeley School of Decoration in Paterson, New Jersey. In 1929 Scalamandré married Flora Baranzelli a designer and painter. The same year they formed Scalamandré Silks. Founding of the company coincided with a growing movement in the United States of restoring historic houses and furnishings. Scalamandré began recreating historic fabrics based on the collections of historic homes and museums.

Scalamandré Museum of Textiles

In 1936 Scalamandré opened the Scalamandré Museum of Textiles, located in the company's Manhattan showroom. The museum displayed the company's collection of historic European and American textiles. The museum continued in operation, with a mission of showing historic textile documents to the public, often alongside the company's careful reproductions, until the late 1960s.

Recreating historic textiles

Scalamandré and his company reproduced historic textile documents for prestigious homes and museums including the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

, the United States Capitol, many state houses, governors' mansions, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and Hearst Castle in

San Simeon, California San Simeon (Spanish: ''San Simeón'', meaning "St. Simon") is a village and Census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Its position along State Route 1 is about halfway between Los Angeles ...

. A 1989 exhibition at the Paley Design Center of the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science titled "Scalamandre: Preserving America's Textile Heritage, 1929-1989" credited Franco Scalamandré and his firm with having recreated over 600 historic textile reproductions.

Work at the White House

Scalamandré was commissioned to produce silk fabric for the

restoration during the administration of president

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

. In 1961 the firm was contacted to provide material for the White House. American interior decorator Sister Parish performing initial redecoration work primarily on the residential floor of the White House specified several stock fabrics from Scalamandré Silks. As the White House restoration began to focus on the more public ceremonial rooms of the State Floor, French interior designer Stéphane Boudin of Maison Jansen was given oversight of the redecoration of the Red Room, Blue Room,

East Room The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence, which is a building of the White House complex, the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence; it is used for ...

, and the fabric selection for the

Green Room In show business, the green room is the space in a theatre or similar venue that functions as a waiting room and lounge for performers before, during, and after a performance or show when they are not engaged on stage. Green rooms typically have ...

. Boudin was encouraged to use the American manufacture Scalamandré to recreate several of the historic fabric documents from the library of Maison Jansen, and the recreation of a complex silk

lampas Lampas is a type of luxury fabric with a background weft (a "ground weave") typically in taffeta with supplementary wefts (the "pattern wefts") laid on top and forming a design, sometimes also with a " brocading weft". Lampas is typically woven i ...

with an eagle design for the upholstery of a suite of French Empire furniture by cabinetmaker

Pierre-Antoine Bellangé Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1757–1827) was a French ''ébéniste'' (cabinetmaker) working in Paris. Bellangé held an eminent position among the representatives of the decorative arts at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He gained his m ...

originally acquired by

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

for the Blue Room. This, and the Green Room's complex hand woven watered silk moiré proved most challenging. Samples for the Blue Room's upholstery disappointed First Lady

Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A po ...

and Stéphane Boudin.

White House Chief Usher The White House chief usher is the head of household staff and operations at the White House, the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States of America. The position is currently held by Robert B. Downing, wh ...

J. B. West recorded that the

Curator of the White House The White House Office of the Curator is charged with the conservation and study of the collection of fine art, furniture and decorative objects used to furnish both the public and private rooms of the White House as an official residence and a ...

William Voss Elder, III described the sample as looking like a plucked chicken. Samples for the Green Room watered silk wall covering were found to be coarse, too thick, and too regular in comparison with the 18th century sample provided to the firm. Production of both fabrics was quietly moved to the venerable French textile firm Tassinari et Chatel, which had probably woven the Monroe era fabric, originally in crimson. The completed fabric was delivered to the United States by diplomatic pouch avoiding scrutiny by the

United States Customs Service The United States Customs Service was the very first federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government. Established on July 31, 1789, it collected import tariffs, performed other selected border security duties, as well as conducted c ...

and the controversy of a foreign manufactured product. Scalamandré silks were used in the Blue Room drapery, Red Room walls, drapery, and upholstery. Subsequent refurbishments of the White House during the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and both Bush administrations used stock and custom woven textiles from Scalamandré workshops. And the firm has provided silk lampas and silk and wool velvets to restoration projects in the United States Capitol.

Civic and design recognition

Scalamandré received several design awards including the Gordon Gray Award for Achievement in Preservation from the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

and the Thomas Jefferson Award granted by the American Society of Interior Designers. He also received numerous civic citations for his work in preserving and recreating historic American textiles including one from

The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America is an American organization composed of women who are descended from an ancestor "who came to reside in an American Colony before 1776, and whose services were rendered during the Colonial Pe ...

, whose several historic properties Scalamandré's firm helped restore.

References

External links

The House of Scalamandré
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scalamandre 1898 births 1988 deaths 19th-century Neapolitan people People from Plandome Manor, New York Italian emigrants to the United States American textile designers