Time for a little Tommasini timeline update. This should help in dating certain frames and I hope it's useful to someone out there. With few catalogues out there from this long-time builder, articles like these should be preserved or translated for collectors. This from the August 1987 issue of La Bicicletta, page 89.
The Tommasini Paint
It's difficult to know if the many types of paint jobs on our frames are born from the demands of the market or from the intense fantasy of someone, conditioning users and builders in a kind of infighting in the search and making of beautiful things, but also of incredibly bizarre things. The question, naturally, remains open.
The latest novelty is offered by Irio Tommasini, a builder that has always treated his paint jobs with elegance and class. Tommasini calls his latest creation "marbleized", the result of a peculiar procedure that leaves the characteristic of veined marble of an impressive effect. The resulting color is more alive and glossy, but also more graceful, as if it were being seen through a lens or in transparent.
The Tommasini "marbled" frames were debuted at the New York trade show. The favorable reaction convinced the Tuscan builder to insist on this type of finish to which we interrupted by asking about the technical details. How many times does it get treated in the oven? Is the transparency obtained with a final layer of clear coat? But Tommasini remained entrenched behind his "top secret"... which is not uncommon even in the cycling world.
--- So there we have it. Tommasini marbled frames made their debut in 1987.
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