Welcome to the Online Museum of vintage espresso machines

In the year 1901 Luigi Bezzera revolutionized the preparation of coffee. Before that date the process of brewing coffee was always the same, whether it was done in households or in coffee houses or bars. Only the sizes of the machines were of course different. With the old infusion method however it wasn’t possible to handle the great demand for coffee. Machines that use steam to operate where common at this time and Bezzera adopted this principle to the coffee machine. While putting the water in a boiler under pressure he was able to fasten the process of making coffee. It could be made to order or in other words “espressivo”. That’s the origin of the expression “Espresso”. The first machine out of Bezzera’s workshop with the name “Gigante” had the typical collar shape, which was taken over by other manufactures like La Cimbali, La Pavoni, La San Marco, Victoria Arduino and others. The design stayed pretty much the same for many years until 1948 La Pavoni made a ground-breaking innovation: Giò Ponti who was responsible for the design of a machine which became popular by the nickname “La Cornuta” was the first machine where the brew groups where installed next to each other on a horizontal boiler.

 

Also in technical terms the year 1948 indicates a watershed in the construction of espresso machines. The new competitor in the market, Achille Gaggia, filed in a patent with a newly designed lever group and introduced a machine that was equipped with that innovation (Gaggia Classica, 1948). It was the first machine that used the force of a spring to create the pressure that was needed to make an espresso. The pressure of the boiler could be reduced to a point where it still was high enough for steaming milk but not as high as before. The result was that the espresso no longer tasted burned. And there was another side effect. For the first time the espresso had foam on the top (crema). In the beginning for the clients this was quite strange. Because of that reason Gaggia put the slogan “crema caffé naturale” on their machines to calm the clients. In the following years Gaggia brought some notable machines on the market. The Esportazione (1950) was often named “sardine can” because of its shape. 1952 the manufacturer brought a machine for the household on the market (Gilda). In the bars particularly the Internazionale (1953) was the big eye catcher.

Close connected to Gaggia was the history of another famous brand. Achille Gaggia was looking for someone who had a workshop to produce his machines and found Ernesto Valente. But after a short time after a dispute the two went separate ways and Gaggia opened his own factory. Ernesto Valente realized the economic potential and founded the brand Faema. This new business expanded really fast to the regret of Gaggia and introduced many innovations. One was the machine E-61, which was the first machine that was equipped with a pump and hit the market in the year 1961. But as well in the years before, Valente surprised with a variety of machines. The series that was named after planets (Mercurio, Marte, Nettuno, Saturno, Venere und Urania) is very sought-after by collectors nowadays. Some old brands disappeared or became insignificant but just those two newcomers ruled the market in these years.

 

Apart from Gaggia and Faema it was also the brand La Pavoni which had a strong influence in the market. The Concorso was pathbreaking as it was the first machine with a modular construction. It was possible to create machines with different numbers of brew groups by using the same elements. Out of the production facilities of La San Marco originate the machine Lollobrigida, which was named after an Italian actress who had the same round curves like the machine.

 

In particular the years after World War II where characterized by an overwhelming variety of design concepts for espresso machines. In the beginning the machines where quite baroque but very soon the American jukebox design gained a strong influence. The result was that almost every machine had a fluorescent lighting on the backside. The espresso machine became the centre of the bar and therefore the manufactures attached great importance to the design. Designer like Gio Ponti, Alberto Rosselli, Bruno Munari or Marco Zanusi were engaged. There was no machine that looked like another.

 

Primary in the late 70s when the machines moved from the counter to the back of the bar the design became a minor matter. Here in the Online-Museum you can get a picture of the glory days.

 

Avanti!