Embroidery school Ranieri di Sorbello

In 1904 the Scuola di Ricami Ranieri di Sorbello (Embroidery school) was founded through the inspiration and entrepreneurship of Marchesa Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello in Villa del Pischello (The family’s summer residence overlooking Lago Trasimeno) with the aim of reviving local traditions. 

The Pischello School of Embroidery ethos was that each worker should embroider by hand specialising in a single technique and taking inspiration from designs  selected by Carolina Amari (a leading and renowned designer who worked with many Italian embroidery schools) and Marchesa Romeyne. The handmade Umbrian fabric to be embroidered was either linen, cotton or hemp and mainly sourced from the Tela Umbra textile mill in Citta di Castello.

Romeyme’s true innovation was to revive an embroidery stich known as “punto umbro” or “punto portoghese” originating from the Arabian peninsula. The “umbro” stich, also known as the Sorbello, was learned and then applied innovatively in patented Renaissance-style Italian designs. In 1934 after a new American law placed a tax on imported textiles the school was closed.