The Princess and the Pea and Other Fairy Tales

A new book has recently enriched the catalogue of the Pirelli Foundation library: an original collection of children’s fairy tales written in the late 1940s and early 1950s by Giorgia de Cousandier, with illustrations by Bruno Angoletta. These were the years when the author – a translator, writer and publicist – contributed numerous articles to the prestigious Pirelli magazine. The small volume, published on behalf of Pirelli, was distributed as a gift to Italian schoolchildren, inviting them to “remember the miracles of Gommapiuma”, the soft latex foam rubber introduced by Pirelli in 1933. Within a few years, this innovative material became a staple in Italian homes, replacing horsehair, springs and feathers in the padding of armchairs, sofas and cushions. The stories draw on the familiar imagery of classic fairy tales: kingdoms and castles, lavish banquets and enchanted forests, gingerbread houses and the characters we all remember – indolent kings, wistful princes, fairies with mysterious powers, talking animals and beloved figures such as Pinocchio, Cinderella, Tom Thumb and the Seven Dwarfs. Yet, as the tales unfold, Giorgia de Cousandier’s imagination shines through, and her visions are brought to life by Angoletta’s black-and-white and coloured illustrations – one of his rare ventures into the commercial sphere. In this playful reinterpretation, The Princess and the Pea no longer tells of a royal who feels a tiny legume beneath a stack of mattresses, but about a clever handmaid who replaces swan-feather bedding with modern foam-rubber mattresses. The lazy king, meanwhile, persuades the ministers of his realm to renounce war by presenting them with an array of luxuriously padded sofas made with the same material. And in Once Upon a Time... (But No More?), the author, who was taken as a child into the wonderful Kingdom of Fairy Tales, returns years later to find that war and progress have dulled children’s ability to believe and have faith in that world of enchantment. To ease their sorrow, Giorgia offers them soft, comforting foam-padded treasures  – prams, mattresses, pillows... The message is clear: with Pirelli foam rubber, “your home will become more beautiful, more comfortable, and cleaner – almost magical, like the settings in the fairy tales you have been reading.” <br> <br> La principessa del pisello e altre fiabe <br> Giorgia de Cousandier, illustrations by Bruno Angoletta <br> Milano: Pirelli S.a.A. [1950] <br>