Rope makers
Tappa

Rope makers

Mario Puccini, 1914. Oil painting on wood, 35 x 50 cm

On a  country road with beaten earth at the sides and long grass in the middle, we see the now unknown work of the rope makers, those people who made hemp cords and ropes. In the foreground in the centre, a large rope, its yarns intertwined, hangs from a cross-shaped, wooden trestle planted in the ground. By retracing this rope that has just been made, we can see the typical movements and items of this work: the rope is supported by another trestle, in front of which we see the backs of two men, wearing heavy dark jackets and berets, walking backwards. Another rope trails off the first trestle to the ground, alongside a man also wearing a cap, who is turning the wheel with his left hand.  

A high, long, curved boundary wall separates the rope makers from a large farmhouse: it is the dwelling, with its green shutter and pergola at the front, and the stable and dovecote to the left hand side.    

Four spindles are placed on a cross-shaped trestle, which spun the hemp thread into yarn as the wheel connected by a cord is quickly turned by hand. Walking backwards, and with a large “turning hook” known as a “garbiglio” and a channelled wooden mallet, the rope makers twist the rope further and compact the heads until a rope is created, which is then placed on a row of other trestles to dry.     

It was in fact necessary to keep the yarn and ends wet, to stop them  getting too hot due to the turning and weaving, and splitting. This is why the rope makers always worked close to rivers or fountains. Ropes were (and still are) of primary importance for work in the countryside, for the shipping world, building sites and maritime world. The procedure is now entirely mechanised and the craft of rope making has disappeared.    

In Livorno, the rope makers were concentrated in the Borgo San Jacopo district, where a road is still named after them, Via dei Funaioli. The Giuseppe Del Chicca rope factory, founded in 1876, was an important one. In 1887, with “35 labourers and a fly wheel started up by a stable of horses, 2 winches and 8 handwheels” produced ropes for naval use from hemp picked in Emilia-Romagna. The ropes were mainly sold overseas.    

 [Taken from Work path, by Sara Bruni, in the Fattori Civic Museum in Livorno: works, paths, links. Guide to the educational project by Antonella Gioli, Sillabe s.r.l. Livorno, 2016]