Smith Journal – January 2019

Of course, fireworks themselves aren’t a

recent invention. The earliest documented

cases date back to ninth-century China,

during the Tang dynasty, when fireworks

were thought to ward o evil spirits.

By the 1500s they’d found their way to

Europe, where they quickly (ahem) took o.

Shakespeare’s plays mention them three

times, and Queen Elizabeth I was such a

huge fan that she created an oicial title –

Fire Master of England – to bestow upon

the country’s best fireworks maker. Anne

Boleyn’s coronation in 1538 supposedly even

included “a dragon casting forth wild fire.”

Like pretty much everything else, fireworks

really bloomed in the Renaissance. Italy

soon became known as a pioneer of fiery

spectacles, particularly the cities of Florence

and Venice, which were the first to set

fireworks atop giant wooden statues (some

20 metres high). In Rome, fireworks were

launched from the battlements of Castel

Sant’Angelo to celebrate the election of

a new Pope. Across the Channel, in

1814, Charles Lamb wrote to William

Wordsworth about a particularly glorious

display in Hyde Park: “The fireworks

were splendent. The Rockets in cluster,

in trees and all shapes, spreading about

like young stars... floundering about in

space. Till some of Newton’s calculations

should fix them... then they went out.”

For Fortunato and the Foti clan, it’s all still

a work in progress. By manufacturing their

own fireworks, they control end-to-end

production, which improves quality and

gives them creative control. It’s all about

experimentation. Crowds are notoriously

fickle, and everyone’s chasing the next big

bang. “That’s the beauty of being your own

manufacturer,” says Fortunato. “You can

develop new techniques and colours and

eects. We try to come up with something

new each year, particularly for New Year’s Eve.”

“When I first started out, we only knew

how to make blue, red, green, yellow and

white. Now, with all the dierent chemical

compounds, we can do pastel colours,

magentas, sky blues. The sky’s the limit.” •

Above, left to right
The Marulan complex is
littered with makeshift
contraptions collected
since the company’s
founding. Pictured here
are two disused fire drums.

Celestino Foti’s original
recipe cards, brought over
from Italy in the 1950s.

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