Slippery Rock Gazette

Ken Scott

Photos  Courtesy Santarossa Mosaic and Tile Company

A moving company mishap, a box of pieces and a craftsman with an eye for puzzles and color combined to restore a prized tabletop from 1841 that at first seemed like a “Humpty-Dumpty” lost cause. But fate stepped in when the movers contacted Santarossa Mosaic and Tile Company to see what could be done.

Loose and broken pieces of this antique mosaic tabletop were handed to Santarossa Mosaic and Tile in a box and a Ziploc bag. “Can you fix it?” the moving company asked.

When the rare pietre dure-style tabletop was being moved, it was inadvertently dropped. The technique used to create the tabletop involves precise cutting and shaping of fine slices of marble to create a mosaic. Made by Darmanin and Sons, the piece was exhibited in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London. A similar table from the same studio is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (see sidebar, page 12).

Knowing its value, the movers picked up as many pieces as they could find, but of course some were lost. Nevertheless, box in hand, they set out to find someone who could help “put Humpty together again.” Because the movers were responsible for the contents they were transporting, that was who Santarossa dealt with and not the owner of the table, who remains anonymous to them. 

“Restorations of this type are somewhat of a dying art; there are not a lot of companies that will take on this kind of project,” said Santarossa’s Marble and Granite Division Operations Manager Shawn Alexander. “In these instances, we lean on the customer to tell us the direction we should take.”

Alexander said that this is not the first piece of this age that they have worked on. Santarossa restored a clock from about the same time frame, but the tabletop is the first 19th-century piece whose origin date could be verified. 

One of the first decisions to be made was whether to use traditional techniques, which would mean using older materials, or to use newer materials like epoxies that were not around when the table was first built. Upon inspection, it was obvious that some breaks had occurred before and had been put back together with modern cement. 

“The owner of the piece told the moving company to just have us do the best we could with what they gave us,” said Alexander. “But the movers wanted it to be as close to a full restoration as we could manage; this meant using today’s materials and finding pieces for the missing areas that would be as close a match as possible. The movers also wanted it to be sturdy enough to make moving it easier.”

Fortunately, the center medallion was complete and had not been damaged. So the first task was to remove the medallion, which was accomplished by water-jetting the piece out. Then the work could begin on the restoration.

Alexander said there were a lot of helping hands in the beginning, including his own, but most of the work was done by Angel Lopez.

“We only have three or four individuals who do finish restoration, but Angel has a really good eye and is gifted with the important understanding of how to mix colors,” he said. “He is also blessed with the patience required for the tedious work of matching and fitting what can best be described as the ultimate jigsaw puzzle.” 

Another factor in their favor is the fact that Santarossa has a yard full of pieces of all types of stone. Alexander said they are always on the lookout for pieces. He mentioned Tennessee Pink as one type of stone that they pick up any time they run across some.

“We are kind of stone-hoarders, but that has paid off many times. I can’t tell you the number of times we have pulled pieces of stone from the ground,” he said. “Being a hoarder pays off sometimes.” 

Several pieces were missing from the red marble ring surrounding the medallion, including some black and gold pieces. While stone can be extremely difficult to match, the scale of the project helped. However, at least one very small piece had to be cut out of a big slab. This was one area where the expertise Angel had in color matching was invaluable.

“If we had to match a 10-foot by 5-foot piece, it would be pretty impossible,” said Alexander. “It took lots of smaller pieces and having Angel’s eye was certainly a key factor. And we also got lucky, I guess!”

Alexander said that it took about 60 hours to complete the restoration, which involved extensive hand work. A diamond blade on an angle grinder was used to cut the pieces, relying on the craftsman’s eye to match up the stone, then cutting to fit. The medallion was re-laid once the outer pieces were complete. The finished product is not an exact replica, but it certainly keeps the feel of the period, and ties together very well.

As for the tabletop, it has been returned to its owners (and its base) via the moving company, who took extra-special care in its transport. The finished piece weighed 40 - 45 pounds, but Santarossa was never in possession of the table base, so they have not seen “Humpty Dumpty” since it’s been completely put back together. But they do know that it is all in one piece again.

Santarossa Mosaic and Tile Company is located in central Indiana and will celebrate its 100th year in business in 2024. Founded by Italian immigrant Domenic M. Santarossa, who left Italy at age 13 to study the terrazzo and mosaic trade in Germany, he arrived in the United States at age 20 to build a future for himself and his family. Santarossa was in business as a traveling company at first but in 1921, he moved into the building that they still occupy today. The company was officially incorporated in 1924. Today, four members of the Santarossa family are still with the company, marking three generations strong.

Visit www.santarossa.com and the Slippery Rock Gazette archives for our 2015 story on the history  of Santarossa Mosaic and Tile Company.

A Slice of History

Malta had a number of marble workshops from the 17th century on, initially founded by Italian craftsmen. The island has close historical links with Sicily and the Southern Italian peninsula, which is only fifty miles away. The importation of the mosaic marble technique into Malta was owing to the patronage of the Knight Hospitallers of St John, based there from 1530 until 1798, who commissioned elaborate marble tombstones for themselves. Under British rule from 1800, the workshops began making marble table tops in the Italian style for the influx of wealthy British tourists, who had for many years previously shown an interest in buying marble slabs in Italy as souvenirs of the Grand Tour.

The surface of the table is made using the pietre dure technique, using fine slices of brightly-colored marbles and semi­precious stones to create a pictorial decoration and mosaic which completely cover the top and edges of a backing stone slab. The decorative stones are cut into fine slices using a wire saw, to which an abrasive paste is applied. Traditionally, Paper templates are pasted to the slices of stone, which are then cut to shape. The pieces are then fitted closely together face down on a flat surface, and the backs are coated with molten beeswax and resin, before being glued to the surface of a backing stone.

The tabletop Santarossa restored was made by the best-known marble-working firm in 19th-century Malta, J. Darmanin and Sons, who traded from about 1800 to the 1880s, and exhibited at several international exhibitions including the Great Exhibition, London in 1851.

The circular stone top rests on a columnar pedestal frame, of turned and carved mahogany.

A similar stone table by the J. Darmanin and Sons studio is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inset), gives us the complete provenance of these historical examples of the stoneworker’s art.