Ricerc@Sapienza

For historical, cultural and religious reasons, Rome has always been one of the most attractive cities for international tourism. During the 18th century, when Rome became one of the more popular city of the Grand Tour travelers, the rich foreign visitors began to discover the products of the Roman luxury handicrafts, including reproductions of paintings and sculptures, small objects and mosaic jewels, cameos and engraved stones. In the early decades of the 19th century, the increase in tourist demand for luxury handicrafts led some goldsmiths to abandon the production of foreign-style jewels (a characteristic of the Roman goldsmiths aimed at intercepting local demand) to produce objects which value added resided in the artistic and cultural content inspired by the Italian goldsmith tradition. The craftsmen who first innovated the Roman jewellery were the Castellani. They invented the so-­called "Italian archaeological jewelry", attracting immediate success among the wealthy tourists, artists and intellectuals who visited Rome during the 19th century. The paper will outline the entrepreneurial strategies adopted by the Castellani to obtain a product able to attract the taste of foreign customers who over the years also played the role of "testimonials" for the conquest of the international market.