ROMEO REGA
Romeo Rega (b. Rome 1925 – 1984) was a furniture designer and master iron forger . He followed in the footsteps of his father Pietro, also an artisan. He apprenticed with a master blacksmith and forger from whom he learned the art of iron. In the late 1940's he opened a small shop in Trastevere, Rome where he began to work with wrought iron, designing and realizing gates, railings and iron furniture. In 1957 he opened his first studio where he collaborated with talented wrought iron and forging masters. In 1959, he received an important order for Cinecitta to design and realize the chariots for the film Ben-Hur. Among his clients are glitterati from the world of cinema and entertainment, such as Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Rascel and his wife Giuditta Saltarini, Massimo Ranieri, Renzo Arbore.
In the 1970's Romeo Rega was part of a pack of Italian designers combining inventiveness and elegance with strong modernist influence. Working with Willy Rizzo & Gabriella Crespi they championed Modernist Glam, still very much in vogue today. He began to apply the traditional methods of working iron with materials such as brass, steel and lucite. The four-rod tables, zeta consoles and obelisk lamps are some of his most famous pieces. The trademark Romeo Rega with the double 'R's was first used on New Years Eve 1969 and is symbolic of the turn to the 1970's. The company manufactured until 1981.
