Bidspirit auction | Fascist Photograph Album Documenting the

Fascist Photograph Album Documenting the Fascist Befana Ceremony. Italy, 1938 - Befana Fascista A. XVI – Stabilimenti Pisa - Milano / S.A. VIS (Vetro Italiano di Sicurezza). - A rare Fascist documentary photograph album documenting the distribution of ”Fascist Befana” (Befana Fascista) gifts to the children of employees of the V.I.S. (Vetro Italiano di Sicurezza) glassworks. Dedicated to the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, the renowned Italian entrepreneur and aristocrat Prince Piero Ginori Conti (Principe Piero Ginori Conti). Milan and Pisa, January 1938. An official photograph album documenting the celebrations marking the sixteenth year of the Fascist regime (Anno XVI) at the facilities of the renowned Italian glass company V.I.S. The album contains 24 silver-gelatin photographs depicting senior officers in the official Fascist militia uniform, wearing eagle insignia and their distinctive striped caps, as they tour the production lines of the glass factory. Several photographs document the main ceremony, showing a ceremonial stage decorated with national flags, official portraits of Benito Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III, and at its center a monumental sculpted Fasces, the principal symbol of Italian Fascism. The album also documents the distribution of gift packages and presents to the workers' children by militia officers, large gatherings of women and children, and participants raising their arms in the Fascist salute before the camera. The album was dedicated to the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, the renowned Italian entrepreneur and aristocrat Prince Piero Ginori Conti (Principe Piero Ginori Conti). The first page contains the official forwarding sheet sent from Milan to Prince Piero Ginori Conti at Via della Scala in Florence. The Befana Fascista ceremony was one of the principal propaganda and welfare events established by Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party. The regime appropriated the popular Befana festival (the traditional Christian gift-giving celebration of early January) and transformed it into a demonstration of logistical capability and political image-making, intended to display concern for the lower social classes and the children of industrial workers, thereby securing the complete loyalty of the citizens of tomorrow to the Duce. The album is bound in gray-green imitation leather, stamped in gold with the inscription: V.I.S. - Vetro Italiano di Sicurezza: Società Anonima Milano (”V.I.S. - Italian Safety Glass: Milan Joint-Stock Company”). Album: 27x19 cm. Photographs (uniform size): 17x11 cm. Very good condition.