Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello, also known as Romeyne Robert (New York, 16 October 1877 – Perugia, 22 January 1951), was an aristocrat and businesswoman, originally from the United States. She was a member of the Ranieri Bourbon di Sorbello family.
Family and education background Romeyne Robert belonged to a wealthy family of the United States upper bourgeoisie with ancient French Huguenot roots, originally from La Rochelle (Charente Maritime, France), which settled in America around the end of the 17th century: the first member of this family who travelled to Italy was Judge Daniel Robert, in 1686. In the nineteenth century the family began to accumulate a substantial fortune, as a result of well-managed business activities; more specifically Christopher Rhinelander Robert (1802–1878), Romeyne's grandfather, was a prosperous businessman, who ̶ in 1835 – founded the company Robert & Williams, for the import of sugar, tea and coffee. A religious man and dedicated philanthropist, in 1863 he established the Robert College in Istanbul, an institution to which he left a substantial legacy and which became an important advanced training centre in the Near East, as well as a monument to American philanthropy.Robert, Christopher Rheinlander in Dictionary of American Biography, edited by Dumas Malone, vol. XVI, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935.
Howell Robert (1844–1914), Christopher's son, married Charlotte Shaw (1841–1940), a second cousin of the writer, playwright, linguist and musical critic George Bernard Shaw. They had three daughters, but only Romeyne lived to become an adult.
Romeyne grew between Germantown, near Philadelphia and Morristown in New Jersey. A cultured young woman, great enthusiast of music and theatreAntonella Valoroso, Il Novecento in Rossini e la cultura musicale a Palazzo Sorbello, edited by Antonella Valoroso e Sara Morelli, Perugia, Fondazione Ranieri di Sorbello, 2018, pages 33–41. and fluent in four languages, she travelled extensively across Europe with her parents, and continued her education there. In 1901 during a trip to Italy with her mother Charlotte, in Rome, she met her future husband: marquis Ruggero Ranieri di Sorbello (1864–1946), whom she married in 1902. She then moved permanently to Perugia, at Palazzo Sorbello, an aristocratic residence in town, historically property of her husband's family.
The "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" Romeyne became active in the area of philanthropy and social promotion, following the model inaugurated by the "settlement movement", established in England around the end of the 20th century, which later developed also in major cities along the north-east coast of the United States. The indigent communities living in what were known as settlement houses, funded by men and women from this movement, benefited from educational and welfare projects; this also included the development – particularly among immigrant women – of artistic and professional training, often with an ideal link to the Arts and Crafts movement, which had also reached England from the United States and whose purpose was the promotion of arts and the industry, creating products of high artistic value, highlighting the artisan experience by reproducing motifs and drawings related to the past, more specifically to the Renaissance period. These artefacts were actually the subject not only of great artistic interest, but also involved a flourishing market of collectors and enthusiasts.
Following this model, Romeyne then decided to set up at Villa del Pischiello, on the estate of the Ranieri di Sorbello family, in the hilly area around Lake Trasimeno, a school of embroidery, which later became known as "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello".
For this project of hers, she availed herself of support from Carolina Amari (Florence, 9 September 1866 – Rome, 11 August 1942), one of the figures within the women's emancipation movement which started in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, based on the model of what was happening at the time in the Anglo-Saxon world. Carolina Amari also provided the necessary artistic and technical guidance to establish the cooperative called "Industrie Femminili Italiane" (1903), with the aim of supporting or developing workshops and embroidery and lace-making activities throughout Italy; this led to the rediscovery of an artistic technique by then in decline. Being also well known in the United States for her artistic interpretation on fabric of medieval and Renaissance patterns, in 1905 she contributed to setting up in New York the "Scuola d'Industrie Italiane", whose purpose was to help immigrant women find employment by producing and selling embroidered and lace items.
The partnership between Romeyne and Carolina Amari encompassed both the artistic and the business side, with a view to implementing many of the methods promoted by the company I.F.I., resulting in a successful business, from both an entrepreneurial and a social perspective, as source of employment, income and emancipation for young female farm labourers in the areas around Lake Trasimeno, who worked there as embroiderers. The school workshop was inaugurated in 1904 with eight embroiderers; ten years later it employed eighty women, and between 1928 and 1933 at least one hundred and fifty.
Work procedures in the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" All the women who lived in the areas around the villa and who had an interest in contributing to supporting the family, or who wished to set aside resources, thus becoming independent from male figures, could enrol in this "vocational school", where they could learn a trade. Each of the female workers was assigned a specific task, which had to be completed independently, without divulging information about the possible techniques learnt and employed there. All this led to training a specialised female workforce, as well as allowing for a unique end product. The work was done from home, passing through the hands of several women, each of them performing their specific task, the same as on an actual "assembly line". Once the finished item was delivered, the job completed was recorded in a pocket-sized log-book, which was indeed one of the first examples of "worker’s personal card", one of which was given to each female staff member. On a set day of the month, in the presence of the Marchioness and of an accountant, the women went to the villa and were paid for the work they had done; it was then Romeyne herself who encouraged them to open an account with the Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia where they could pay in their earnings.Direct testimony from Margherita Biancalana (1909–2011), one of the last embroiderers employed in the School. In this way it was easier to set aside the money necessary for personal expenses or for a dowry, free from any control by fathers or husbands.
The female staff had the chance to learn, or perfect, several more or less popular embroidery stitches; following a social welfare concept, though, they were not only engaged in their work: many of them also learned to read and write, as well as acquiring basic personal hygiene and cleaning skills, which were also required on the job.
Romeyne, as well as being head of the school, often prepared patterns for embroidering: she had studied art and drawing, therefore she was skilled at reproducing on sketchbooks the ornaments and friezes she saw on architectural structures, artefacts or painted images.Claudia Pazzini, Gli album di acquerelli di Romeyne Robert dalla Fondazione Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello, in OttocentoCittà. Paesi e borghi umbri e dell’Italia centrale nei dipinti del XIX secolo, Città di Castello, Edimond, 2004, pages 189–197. She was also inspired by the ancient embroideries she saw in the collection owned by Countess Edith Rucellai in Florence, which she used to create a pattern based on a medieval-Renaissance taste concept, with distinctive curls, floral panoplies, animal and anthropomorphic figures. Starting from her preparatory sketches, it was then the task of Carolina Amari to produce more stylised drawings, then copied out on paper patterns for the embroiderers who finally reproduced the subject using several types of stitch.
The point of pride, as well as original creation at the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" was the so-called "Punto Sorbello" or "Umbro Antico": officially patented by the Marchioness, it was actually the result of restyling by Carolina Amari of traditional stitches and embroideries of Arab origin, widespread both in Italy and in Portugal. It was usually stitched on rough cloth, and consisted of various types of overlapping needlepoint (using stitches known as curly, witch, grass, entwined, full, scallop, etc.), which resulted in an ideal relief effect. Starting in 1908, the products were made almost exclusively on valuable linen fabric woven in the "Tela Umbra" workshop, founded in Città di Castello in 1908 by Baroness Alice Hallgarten Franchetti, a friend of Romeyne's with whom she started a profitable business arrangement.
As entrepreneur and promoter of her own business, Romeyne started to take part in numerous trade fairs and exhibitions, for example the international "Industries and Labour " show in 1911 in Turin, proving highly successful.On the occasion of this exhibition she had a brochure-leaflet published (in Italian, English and German), with a description of the Sorbello Stitch and of the Scuola di Ricamo. See also La Scuola di Ricami di Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello. Storia e fortuna di un laboratorio femminile in Umbria (1904–1934), edited by Marilena de Vecchi and Valentina Costantini, Perugia, Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation, 2011. The demand for embroideries from her school increased considerably in Italy, but most notably in Europe and in America: foreign markets were indeed the source of most of its revenues.
Based on this experience, the Marchioness decided to encourage the establishment of other similar vocational schools, which, with more or less difficulty, were being opened in the region. This is how, in 1921, a partnership was created with other women from the Perugia aristocracy, resulting in the Cooperative called “Arti Decorative Italiane",Louise Ambler, Revival and Reform: The Impetus for the Embroidery Enterprise of Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello in The House Museum of the Palazzo Sorbello in Perugia, edited by Helen Rees Leahy, Perugia, Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation, 2010, p. 84. Its offices, as well as the showroom and store, were on the main street in Perugia, Corso Vannucci, at number 8. It was managed by the Marchioness and by Carolina Amari who produced an advertising brochure in several languages, outining the specificities of each school and of the embroideries produced there. to which the "Scuola di ricami Ranieri di Sorbello" became affiliated and which was active until 1929. The end of this syndicated organisation was mainly due to the economic collapse caused by the Great Depression in the United States, which led to a considerable reduction in orders, bringing down the requests for some textile articles to almost zero because of the exorbitant customs duties being imposed.