Hop over to Italy with me for a minute will you? In the countryside province of Parma (yeah, that place where the ham comes from), an unusual and one-of-a-kind museum awaits …
We’re at the Ettore Guatelli Museum, an archive of more than 60,000 artifacts that bear witness to the lives and work of men and women, masterfully arranged within a beautiful old farming estate. Everything from tools, toys, kitchen wares, musical instruments, thousands of tins, clocks and more. The collector and carer of all these objects was Mr. Guatelli himself, who lived his entire life on the estate until his death. The picturesque farming complex is now run by a private foundation that keeps his passion for the everyday object alive.
Guatelli once said, “These are humble things, sure, but some of them are incredibly ingenious, poetic in their humility, and loveable. That makes you want to understand who was there, and what was behind these objects. It makes you want to know in what way and under what circumstances these items were used”.
