Reuniting the Ciprianis
Several years ago I was contacted by email by a lady in France asking me why I had no information on Ugo Cipriani on my website. I replied that was because there was no information on this artist but given the writers email address which included Cipriani that perhaps she could give me some information on the artist. She replied that her name was Lydia Cipriani and that she was the daughter of Ugo and was only 8 when he died
She told me the dates he was born and when he died. I asked my partner to add the info to my website information on artists – it was a start.
Several weeks later I got an email from Gabriel Cipriani who told me one of the dates was incorrect. So I asked my partner to change it on site and to add that we had this information courtesy of Lydia and Gabriel Cipriani. Later I got an email from Lydia asking why we had changed the date and who was Gabriel! I explained and told her I had hoped she would know who Gabriel was. She replied and told me she has a half Brother who’s name is Gabriel who she had not not seen for several decades and could I please send his contact info to her, which I did. Just after the following new year we got an email from the whole Cipriani family wishing us a very happy new year and giving us a big thank you for putting the whole family back in contact with each other! Isn’t the internet amazing.
I thank Ugo Cipriani’s daughter, Lydia and son Gabriel for this important information.
Lydia also contacted me again some time later and asked me why certain statues on my site were said to be by Menneville. She said they were by her Father. I wrote back to say that the items in question were signed with a proper Menneville signature and definitely by Menneville. But had she considered perhaps her Father used the pseudonym Menneville? She wrote back to say she did not know this to be the case. I pointed out that her Father used many pseudonyms already – Roggia, De Viggo, and Uriano. Like these other three pseudonyms there is no information on Menneville. Many artists used pseudonyms and they were often family names like the artist mothers maiden name. Some days later Lydia contacted me again to say she had been to a family meeting with her other half brother and he confirmed his Mothers maiden name was Menneville.
She also asked how I have names for some of the statues. I told her I have 2 original foundry catalogues for spelter statues and the name of the foundries were Contoz and Silvin in Paris. She said she remembers the two owners who were cousins, as she used to go with her Father to deliver statues. Interestingly enough these two foundries produced Cipriani and Menneville statues.
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