Fontanini Nativity

Italian nativity crafts : background to the Fontanini organisation.

Ask any Italian person to name a company renowned for their nativity crafts and Fontanini is likely to be the first they think of.

Like many Italian companies, Fontanini is a family concern which began with the patriarch, Emanuele. He was at first an apprentice figurine-painter to another company but in 1908 started Fontanini as a small local business in a single room in the tiny Tuscan town of Bagni di Lucca.

The company has always specialized in hand-crafted, hand-painted Italian nativity figures which have become Christmas symbols throughout Italy.

Since 1908 Fontanini has been handcrafting Italian works of art in the old school tradition.  Highly detailed and hand painted, each piece is a work of art and very collectible.