History

In 1922 Pier Carlo Lenti and his wife Matilde Raiteri founded the company filing the trademark 196AL. He was at the head of the firm until 1975, year of his death. The Raiteri family was already involved in goldsmithery business at the beginning of the XX century. A Vincenzo Ceriana’s daughter, who was a brilliant interpreter of the goldsmithery of the last decade of the XIX century, married Costantino Raiteri. Costantino, in collaboration with his brother Giovanni, took over his father-in-law’s company giving the Raiteri factory the opportunity to operate on national and international markets. In 1926 Costantino died leaving a rich archive composed of drawings and jewels, still in use today by the Lenti company for the production of jewels inspired by refined and elegant lines of the ‘30s. After the temporary suspension of the work due to the Second World War, The P. Carlo Lenti restarted the production developing pearls processing sector. During those years Matilde Raiteri, who started working for the company at a very young age, dealt with administration and she handled clients relationship too, while her husband Pier Carlo Lenti took care of design and he made the choice of the best gemstones on international markets thanks to his remarkable skills as a gemologist. Pier Carlo was able to reorganize both the production and the trade of jewellery, contributing to the success of the company especially on Italian market. This happened thanks to the experience made by Pier Carlo when he was young. Indeed, with two partners he opened a workshop which had a wide distribution network all over Europe. In 1975 Pier Carlo’s son, Alberto, took over to his father following the rules inspired by attention to details and pearls, which were selected by him personally. Lenti company, alongside the production of jewels with a classical design in accordance with family tradition, stands out in creation of rings and solitaire rings with precious gemstones as Fuochi d’artificio collection testifies. Alberto works today with his daughter Simona and his son-in-law.

 

Archive

The archive preserves documents dated back to the 20’s and the material is not ordered with the exception of photographs series which is catalogued. Rubbers are collected in drawers and they are progressively numbered and still today in use. Series are located in several rooms inside the company, a specific archive space doesn't exist.

 

The P. Carlo Lenti archive collects documentation generated by the homonymous company from the ‘20s until today. The material summarily ordered is not indexed and it was divided in several typological series. The series below are preserved:

Rubbers (starting from the ‘40s)

Drawings and sketches (starting from the ‘20s)

Photographs (starting from the ‘20s)

Accounting records and employment records (from the ‘40s)

Drawings, sketches and other documents belonging to Raiteri Costantino company are preserved in the archive too.

 

Sources

L. Lenti, Gioielli e gioiellieri di Valenza, Arte e storia 1825-1975, Allemandi, Turin 1994.

W. Fochesato, R. Massola, Gioielli su carta. Ricchezze dorate fra disegni e cartoline: da Valenza all’Italia, Interlinea, Novara 2018, drawing print on page 65