Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana

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Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana
legal form Sole proprietorship (Italy)
founding 1871
resolution 1929
Reason for dissolution Merger with Carrozzeria Pietroboni to form Fontana, Pietroboni & C.
Seat Bassano del Grappa , Italy
management
  • initially Baldassarre Fontana
  • then Giovanni Battista, Melchiorre and Domenico Fontana
Branch Body shop

Attachable, load-bearing minibus body from Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana from 1928 (without chassis, engine and front)

Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana , short Carrozzeria B. Fontana , Carrozzeria Fontana or just Fontana , is a former Italian Coachbuilder from Bassano del Grappa in today's province of Vicenza in the region Veneto . It is mainly known for its high-quality bodies on upper class - chassis from the 1920s.

Company history

The company was founded by Baldassarre Fontana, who was born in Bassano del Grappa in Veneto . After the Risorgimento as a volunteer in the First Italian War of Independence (1848-1849) had fought, he learned in the Lombardy the body (for coaches and railways ). After the Third Italian War of Independence and the annexation of Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy , he returned to Bassano del Grappa and founded his own body shop in 1871. This developed quickly and successfully, initially at the local level, then with customers throughout Northern Italy .

Baldassarre Fontana had "numerous" sons; At the beginning of the 20th century several supported him in his business, namely Giovanni Battista Fontana and his brothers Melchiorre and Domenico. At that time, they expanded production to include vehicle bodies before Baldassarre Fontana died in 1908 and the sons then continued the business under the previous company name . With the end of the First World War , the new division experienced a strong boom: In the Veneto region in particular, numerous military vehicles remained that could now be converted for civilian purposes. At the same time, the Fontana brothers began to increasingly focus on the market for custom-made luxury vehicles. To this end, the eldest, Giovanni Battista Fontana, traveled to several countries to learn new manufacturing techniques and worked for two years for the prestigious coachbuilder Carrozzeria Italiana Cesare Sala in Milan .

At this time the automobile manufacturer OM from Brescia tried to get the Fontana brothers to clothe a larger number of OM chassis with standardized bodies; however, the brothers persisted in their new direction.

In the 1920s, Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana rose to become one of the most prestigious coachbuilders and won numerous awards at the Concours d'Elegances , including international ones: the greatest successes were first prizes at the Concours in Cannes in 1925 with an Isotta Fraschini and in Viareggio in 1926 and 1928 with an Alfa Romeo or another Isotta Fraschini.

In 1925 B. Fontana signed a contract with Carrozzeria Alessio . This was the Italian licensee for the construction of lightweight, low-noise Weymann bodies, which were considered fashionable at the time, and Fontana secured the license for the Veneto region. In 1928 B. Fontana was a licensee for further special bodies.

The company continued to grow and in 1928 moved to new premises in Bassano del Grappa on Via Parolini . In contemporary advertisements, Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana advertised the “beauty and modernity of the lines” and the “elegance and finesse of the interior”. In order to better utilize the capacity of the new company, Carrozzeria B. Fontana founded a new company in the following year together with Carrozzeria Pietroboni, also based in Bassano . The new company traded as Fontana, Pietroboni & C. in the legal form of a Società Anonima (SA) and from then on used the brand name Fontana e Pietroboni for its bodies .

The new company existed for ten years until 1939 when the members of the Fontana family decided to withdraw from the body shop. Pietro Pietroboni then continued the business alone.

A connection to the body shop Carrozzeria Paolo Fontana and predecessor companies such as Carrozzeria (per Automobili) A. Fontana from his father Antonio (over several generations from 1858 to the 1980s), both in Padua , is just as little known as to Fontana Pietro ( since 1956 in Calolziocorte ).

Details on individual vehicles

Side view of the same minibus body, exhibited in the Museo dell'Automobile "Bonfanti-Vimar"

Some of the motor vehicles clad by the Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana , primarily passenger cars , are documented in more detail with photographs , individual bodies have been preserved:

  • In 1926 an Alfa Romeo RLSS with a “Berlina Smontabile” body was created, a four-door, six-window sedan with sporty lines. Their doors were attached separately to the B-pillar and their roof and side windows could be removed so that the vehicle could be used as an open touring car .
  • In 1928 an Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A was created with an elegant body and long wheelbase as a two-window convertible with two large doors and lines that look like American in details . This year, the vehicle won first prize at the Concours in Viareggio, which Fontana promoted effectively in illustrated advertisements.
  • An attachable, load-bearing minibus body from Carrozzeria Baldassare Fontana from 1928 without chassis, engine and front is exhibited in the Museo dell'Automobile “Bonfanti-Vimar” . It was commissioned by Count Dolfin Boldù di Rosà from the province of Vicenza. It was originally placed on a chassis from the Italian car manufacturer Ansaldo and the Counts used it for several years in the Kenyan wilderness. Special features of the body are with buffalo - leather -trimmed seats, exterior trim with inserts of the same material, fresh water tanks, as well as built-in holders for water bottles and shot shotguns . The counts then brought the vehicle back to Italy, where the chassis was used with a new van body after the Second World War .

literature

  • Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani. Il Cammello, Turin 2017, ISBN 978-8-8967-9641-2 , p. 234 ff. (Italian).

Web links

Commons : Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani. Il Cammello, Turin 2017, ISBN 978-8-8967-9641-2 , p. 234 (Italian).
  2. ↑ a b c The Carrozzeria (Baldassarre) Fontana and its successor companies on the milanorosso web portal , accessed on August 22, 2019 (French).
  3. ↑ a b Information board from the Museo dell'Automobile collection “Bonfanti-Vimar” on the minibus body on display from the Carrozzeria Baldassare Fontana .
  4. ^ A b Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani. Il Cammello, Turin 2017, ISBN 978-8-8967-9641-2 , p. 235 (Italian).
  5. ^ A b Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani. Il Cammello, Turin 2017, ISBN 978-8-8967-9641-2 , p. 236 (Italian).
  6. ↑ Illustration of an Alfa Romeo RLSS with a four-door Berlina Smontabile body by Carrozzeria Baldassarre Fontana from 1926 on the coachbuild.com web portal , accessed on August 22, 2019.
  7. ↑ Advertisement by Carrozzeria B. Fontana with an image of an Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A with its own two-door convertible body from 1928 on the coachbuild.com web portal , accessed on August 22, 2019 (Italian).

Remarks

  1. ↑ There are indications that the first name Fontanas Baldassare was spelled with just an r , cf. Agostino Brotto Pastega: Nobiltà e borghesia a Bassano del Grappa tra Otto e Novecento on the web portal storiadibassano.it , accessed on August 22, 2019 (Italian), also L'Esposizione Italiana del 1881 in Milano , Edoardo Sonzogno 1881, p. 72 , the small company sign on the picture of the Alfa Romeo RLSS from 1926 linked under web links and the information panel from the Museo dell'Automobile collection "Bonfanti-Vimar" .
  2. ↑ According to the information board of the Museo dell'Automobile collection "Bonfanti-Vimar" , production under the previous company name was discontinued in 1928.