The Unbearable Lightness of Art

The twenties were successful years for factory in Umbertide. Adhering to the ideology of the time, artistic heads of Mussolini were produced, as well as commemorative objects of great graphical and formal clarity.

Settimio Rometti was the Socialist mayor of Umbertide in 1920 and 1921. However, during the same period his brother Clotilde emigrated to Nice, where he hosted Italian exiles such as Nenni and Pertini (who worked as a bricklayer in one of his construction sites).

Between 1928 and 1930 the factory produced ceramics designed by Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero, under the brand names “Ceramiche Rometti” and "Ars Umbra". In 1930 collaboration with Cagli came to an end, his role being taken over by the painter Giovanni Ciangottini.

In the next few years the modern and experimental nature of the company’s products earned it many awards, such as the gold medal at the Nice International Exposition (1931), and it received invitations to take part in the Fiera del Levante in Bari and the Crafts exhibition in Florence (1932). The company, which also won an award at the Milan Triennale (1933), then went though a difficult period that ended in bankruptcy in 1934. After various ups and downs, during which Settimio, Aspromonte, and Dante Baldelli temporarily left the company, it was renamed "S.A.C.R.U." (Società Anonima Ceramiche Rometti Umbertide), and from 1938 to 1942 it worked in collaboration with the sculptor Leoncillo Leonardi.

From 1942 to 1947 there were two companies, "S.A.C.R.U." and “Rometti Settimio Fabbricazione Ceramiche Artistiche”, which opened a factory in Via Tiberina immediately after the war.