From Italy, the best example of "handmade" art. The only 100% handmade manufacturer on the planet.
From the beginning they have applied their craft and passion to the manufacture of musical instruments with "soul". The company's origins date back to the early 1800s, when Egidio Forni and his uncle Francesco Bonaventura Rampone moved from Quarna Sotto to Milan, where they learned the trade of turning/modeling musical instruments.
In the following years, the company passes to the hands of the Rampone family, first to Teodoro, and then to his son Agostino Rampone, the true artistic and entrepreneurial mind behind the company. He was a talented flautist at the Scala di Milano who won numerous awards for the company in Milan, Vienna, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Harvard, New York, etc. It is suspected that during this period and on one of his many trips, Agostino met Adolphe Sax, so it is likely that the first Italian saxophones were made in Quarna by Agostino Rampone around 1875.
As for the manufacturing methods, in the mid-nineteenth century, Forni and Rampone moved part of the production to their place of birth, Quarna Sotto. There they installed small carpentry equipment in the houses of friends and relatives located near small streams that were used to move the machinery. Initially, that machinery consisted basically of simple lathes, hand saws and pedal drills that allowed them to work the natural woods found in the area: pear tree, cherry tree, laburnum and boxwood.
In 1910, the marriage of Egidio Rampone with Giuseppina Cazzani, daughter of Giovanbattista Cazzani, a Milanese watchmaker who also made and repaired bronze musical instruments, gave birth to the firm Rampone & Cazzani, known as "Ditte Riunite A.Rampone & GBCazzani" and under this name the firm reached its peak during the beginning of the 20th century.
Nowadays, Rampone & Cazzani is managed by the Zolla family, direct descendants of the Rampone family. Their vocation for a job well done is again at the center of the brand, and it can be seen in models such as the Two Voices.
