Museo della Paglia e dell'Intreccio "Domenico Michelacci" (Signa)
Museo della Paglia e dell'Intreccio "Domenico Michelacci" (Signa)
museums
Via degli Alberti, 11, 50058 Signa FI, Italy
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This museum documents the art of straw-plaiting and the various products made by this technique, a mainstay of Tuscan tradition since the 14th century but developed on an industrial scale only beginning in the 1700s, thanks to the personal contribution of Domenico Michelacci from Bologna who settled in Signa in 1714. He experimented with new techniques for growing and harvesting wheat in order to obtain a raw material that was more suitable for use in millenery, and increased production to the point that by the mid-1800s this market sector became the Grand Duchy’s most important.
Fully one-third of the tillable land of the region was engaged by this agricultural activity and Florence became the natural center for commercial distribution of the finished product, the hat, as is amply illustrated in coeval publications with colored plates of popular costumes, in which one or another form of straw hat is always represented.
This accessory became the most refined of the clothing items produced in series up until that moment, and remained a major strong point in the Tuscan economy, with 80,000 workers, until the crisis of 1929. Just prior to that ill-omened date, production counted about 142 million pieces per year, a number that is surprising even today.
In the museum, founded in 1995 to collect, study, and restore this important fashion complement that has always marked the history of costume, are exhibits of raw materials, tools, machinery, and products flanked by documents, company archives, and sample collections that provide evidence of the entire production process. The material gathered here for the permanent exhibits as well as for temporary monographic exhibits is of interest to many different areas of study: anthropology, art, economy, sociology, and the technicalmaterial disciplines.
The museum’s copious archives and specialized library are open for consultation by people interested in conducting studies and research into the history of straw and its numberless applications. Via degli Alberti, 11
Signa (Firenze)
T 055 875257
Info e prenotazioni T 055 875257
info@museopaglia.it
www.museopaglia.it
museums
Via degli Alberti, 11, 50058 Signa FI, Italy
Show on map
This museum documents the art of straw-plaiting and the various products made by this technique, a mainstay of Tuscan tradition since the 14th century but developed on an industrial scale only beginning in the 1700s, thanks to the personal contribution of Domenico Michelacci from Bologna who settled in Signa in 1714. He experimented with new techniques for growing and harvesting wheat in order to obtain a raw material that was more suitable for use in millenery, and increased production to the point that by the mid-1800s this market sector became the Grand Duchy’s most important.
Fully one-third of the tillable land of the region was engaged by this agricultural activity and Florence became the natural center for commercial distribution of the finished product, the hat, as is amply illustrated in coeval publications with colored plates of popular costumes, in which one or another form of straw hat is always represented.
This accessory became the most refined of the clothing items produced in series up until that moment, and remained a major strong point in the Tuscan economy, with 80,000 workers, until the crisis of 1929. Just prior to that ill-omened date, production counted about 142 million pieces per year, a number that is surprising even today.
In the museum, founded in 1995 to collect, study, and restore this important fashion complement that has always marked the history of costume, are exhibits of raw materials, tools, machinery, and products flanked by documents, company archives, and sample collections that provide evidence of the entire production process. The material gathered here for the permanent exhibits as well as for temporary monographic exhibits is of interest to many different areas of study: anthropology, art, economy, sociology, and the technicalmaterial disciplines.
The museum’s copious archives and specialized library are open for consultation by people interested in conducting studies and research into the history of straw and its numberless applications. Via degli Alberti, 11
Signa (Firenze)
T 055 875257
Info e prenotazioni T 055 875257
info@museopaglia.it
www.museopaglia.it