History

In 1960 Francesco Cattelan, who was born in Costa di Rovigo in 1949, came to Valenza where he learnt goldworking. In 1978 he founded with Luigino Todoerti and Luigi Zanlungo the company CiZeta. In 1984 CiZeta disbanded and Cattelan established his own company giving it the name Filostil. The name recalls the specialization in processing gold thread, nowadays pride for the company too. The trademark 2085AL assigned at the company is still in use. The headquarter was located in vicolo Varese 8/A, then it moved to via XII settembre 33 and then to via Circonvallazione Ovest 32 where it remained for several years before moving at nr. 40 of the same route in 2019. The company grew during the years working as a contractor making orders from important commercial players of the sector and from well known brands. Today around 30 employees work for Filostil: administrative, goldsmiths, setters, cleansers, rhodium platers, designers and CAD operators. Cattelan is still working in production while his daughter Giorgia deals with administration. Recently, Filostil has been working both for its traditional customers but also it is proposing itself directly on the market making high jewellery on specific commission reducing in this way the steps of the chain up to the final consumer. Due to this reason the company also started taking part in fairs such as the one in Hong Kong and in Vicenza. During these exhibitions Filostil shows its skills in making important customized jewels upon request. This is possible thanks to the mastery of the entire production cycle, from the sketch by hand to the finished object. This additional business development (based on the so called bespoke or tailor made jewellery) led jewels by Filostil (made with the traditional gold thread technique) to be appreciated on European and non-European market especially in India, Cina, Dubai and the United States. Filostil is one of the companies which is part of Fondazione Mani Intelligenti. The foundation was established to promote history, knowledge, and relevant quality of Valenza’s goldsmith production and to stimulating innovation too.

 

Archive

Filostil preserved plenty of material related to its work from the foundation. A collection of thousands of examples of prototypes in several materials such as nickel silver and imitation gold exists. Drawings and rubber moulds series are present in tens of thousands of fish each. Photographs are plenty. Of course during the last years CAD technology and 3D print are widely used in the company’s workshop originating, for example, a digital classification of all moulds made.

 

Sources

W. Fochesato e R. Massola,"Gioielli su carta. Ricchezze dorate fra disegni e cartoline: da Valenza all’Italia", Interlinea, Novara 2018. Drawing printed on page 58