The Corzetti Stamp Craftsman

Just outside Florence, in the small village of Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, Filippo Romagnoli starts his day with wood and silence. His workshop sits beneath the family home, where the air smells faintly of sawdust and time. It’s here, in this unassuming space, that he carries on a rare tradition by making corzetti stamps entirely by hand.

The practice began over a hundred years ago with his grandfather, Ferrando, who started carving Corzetti pasta tools in Florence’s artisan quarter in 1918. Three generations later, Filippo is still at it, working with the same care and rhythm that shaped his childhood.

Corzetti is a type of pasta from Liguria and northern Tuscany, shaped like a coin and pressed with patterns that help sauce cling. But these aren’t just decorative. Each motif, a fleur-de-lis, a wave, a crest, carries meaning. Some represent local pride, others family ties. All are personal.

Filippo’s tools are made from Tuscan beechwood, a strong, fine-grained wood that holds detail well. He shapes each stamp using just a handsaw, chisels, and time. Two hours per Corzetti stamp. No more than five a day. Everyone is slightly different from the next.

This isn’t work that can be rushed, and that’s the point. “Everything is done by hand, like it always was,” Filippo says. “It’s not faster, but it’s better.”

He learned the craft from his father, who learned from his father. There are no written instructions. Just a way of working passed on through practice and patience.

The workshop is quiet. Just the sound of tools, the occasional radio, and the creak of the old wooden bench as Filippo leans in close to carve. It’s the kind of environment that slows you down in the best way.

There’s a simple honesty in Filippo’s process that reflects how we think about design. Reverie 2025 is built around the same idea: that well-made things take time. That quality isn’t about showing off, but about how something feels and its lasting quality.

Each piece in the collection, from soft tailoring to relaxed shirting, is made with care, using thoughtful fabrics and clean construction. Like Filippo’s Corzetti stamps, the result is something that feels considered and personal.

In a world that’s always moving faster, Filippo’s work offers something else. A slower pace. A return to detail. A respect for the human hand.

And maybe that’s what makes his Corzetti stamps so special. They’re not just tools. They’re reminders of where things come from, of how things used to be, and of why some things are still worth doing the old way

Explore Reverie 2025 online and in stores. 

Photos courtesy of Nico Schinco.