Bianchi Celeste (chee-LESS-tay?): Here's the story I heard...
In 1893 Edoardo Bianchi taught Queen Margherita the art of cycling. Lessons were given in the park of the Royal Villa at Monza using a special Bianchi model featuring a crystal chainguard. In 1895 King Umberto I appointed Bianchi "Official Suppliers by Appointment to the Royal Court", entitling Bianchi to use the Coat of Arms of the Royal House of Sayoy on the Bianchi headbadge.
The Bianchi color Celeste (aqua green, blue green) was not the color of the sky above Milano as commonly thought, but in reality, the color of Queen Margherita's undergarments! I have this on good authority from a very close personal friend who happens to know the house keeper of an administrative official very high up at the Bianchi Reparto Corsa headquarters in Treviglio ;)
Here's another story from Richard Kaufman:
Certainly the color has changed over the years, and even from batch to batch. In the late sixties, when my father, as a visiting American paint chemist, visited the factory, he discovered the reason why.
Like so many things in an Italian bicycle factory, much of the work is done by hand, mechanized techniques are perceived as lacking warmth. Mixing the paint is no exception. For many years the job of mixing the celeste paint from raw pigments fell to one one elderly gentleman who had been responsible for the task since well before the Second World War.
They complained to my father that despite following the recipe, as written in the notebook of the founding master himself, the paint was not coming out the same color. My father watched them mix a batch. The pigments were miced in precisely the quantities called for. The sources and requisite purity were all correct. The added the pigments to the paint, and the old man began to stir the batch with a short stick, perhaps four inches long. It was obvious to my father that the heavier pigments were sinking to the bottom of the drum, and not contributing to the colro of the paint.
"Perhaps you shoulld use a longer stirring stick?", my father suggested. The managers conferred with the old worker, the shop stewart, and several other workers on the floor. My father, who spoke no Italian, could only wonder what they were saying. After several minutes, it was explained to him: "The old man says, that when he started as an apprentice in the factory, many years ago, the stick was much longer."
After much discussion, the stick was replaced with a longer model, and the color changed to what we know as "Nuovo Celeste", (more likely really "Old Celeste") as they called the paint made with the new stick. Perhaps what has happened is they replaced the stick again. As far as my father knows, they never replaced the mixing drum, and who knows what combination of pigments is being stirred up by the new broom handle they are using.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
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