The Snuff Tobacco Reference

The Bolongaro Family and the Bolongaro Tobacco Concerns

The Bolongaro family were snuff makers and bankers originally from Stresa who through their business interests attained considerable wealth.

Fratelli Mattei

Brothers Giovanni Antonia Mattei and Giacomo Filippo Mattei (d. 1744) inherited upon the retirement of their father his tobacco operation that was based in Antwerp and comprised a tobacconists shop and manufactory, and they relocated this business to Amsterdam, Leipzig, and Frankfurt am Main.

Fratelli Bolongari

The Mattei sister Maria Anna married a Giovanni Pietro Bolongaro (d. 1738), and together they had sons Giacomo Filippo Bolongaro (Germanized as Jakob Philipp Bolongaro, 1710–1780), Giuseppe Maria Bolongaro (Germanized as Josef Maria Bolongaro, 1712–1779), and Francesco Maria Bolongaro (Germanized as Franz Maria Bolongaro, d. 1756), and a daughter Anna Maria (d. 1764).

The Bolongaro brothers would all participate in the tobacco business of their maternal uncles for some years until 1749, when the arrangement was dissolved and the business assets were split, with the Bolongaros together forming their own partnership and subsequently involving themselves in tobacco manufacturing and banking. The eldest accumulated the business assets of his two younger siblings having survived them both with neither having an heir.

Giacomo Filippo Bolongaro had in 1745 married his cousin Anna Maria (d. 1801), daughter of Giacomo Filippo Mattei, and together had daughters Anna Maria and Antonia Maria.

Anna Maria in turn married a Simonetta (d. 1798), and Antonia Maria in turn married a Pier Antonio Crevenna (d. 1792). All were obliged to assume the Bolongaro name and the sons-in-law succeeded in the business both having previously acquired partial ownership in 1771, and this gave rise to the Bolongaro-Simonetta and Bolongaro-Crevenna firms.

Bolongaro-Crevenna

Bolongaro-Crevenna acquired the core assets of the Fratelli Bolongari operation including its Frankfurt am Main and Amsterdam assets. The Amsterdam branch was relocated to Würzburg in 1825 by brothers Joseph Anton Bolongaro-Crevenna and Johannes “Jan” Bolongaro-Crevenna, who were succeeded in 1867 by a Leofrid Adelmann (1819–1884), son-in-law of Joseph Anton Bolongaro-Crevenna, who was in turn succeeded by his son also named Leofrid Adelmann (d. 1899), who was in turn succeeded by his widow Anne. The Frankfurt am Main branch became an independant operation shortly before 1899. The Bolongaro-Crevenna firms went defunct at unclear dates, and neither before 1906.

Bolongaro-Simonetta

Bolongaro-Simonetta established a snuff manufacturing and banking concern in the Töngesgasse in 1784. Simonetta was succeeded upon his death in 1802-01 by son-in-law Francesco Maria Borgnis (Germanized as Franz Maria Borgnis, d. 1818), who immediately renamed the firm Bolongaro-Borgnis. The remainder of the succession is ambiguous, and this firm went defunct in 1866.

Franz Bolongaro

A Joseph Anton Franz Bolongaro originally of Stresa established a snuff manufacturing firm styled Franz Bolongaro in the Töngesgasse in 1808. The founding circumstances being uncertain, and the founder formerly having had partial ownership of the Bolongaro-Simonetta firm, it is unclear whether the Franz Bolongaro firm had a direct lineage to the Fratelli Bolongaro concern. This firm had multiple branches and its immediate succession is not entirely clear, nor is the date at which it went defunct.

References

  1. Il Lago Maggiore: Stresa e le isole Borromee. Vincenzo de Vit. Volume 1; Part 2. 1877.
  2. Frankfurter Bürgerbuch. Alexander Dietz. Pages 13–14. 1897. Digitised version
  3. Bayerns Industrie und Handel. Adam Gutmann. Pages 367–368. 1906. Digitised version