The Discreet Charm of the Ersatz

Present-day nonagenarians may still remember drinking chickory espresso and karkadè – an ersatz hibiscus tea – during Italy’s period of autarky (following its invasion of Abyssinia, which resulted in trade embargoes). There may even be nostalgic gourmets who yearn for those potions, a flavor from their youth. Few Italians indeed, however, will recall buxus. For its brief season of popularity, though, buxus embellished a great many Italian parlors and living rooms with faux marble grain and mottling during the entre-deux-guerres. The inventor, manufacturer, and eponym of that ersatz wood product was Giacomo Bosso (his surname read buxus in Latin, a coy learned citation of the period, not unlike our lingering use of such Chaucerian terms as “anon” and “yclept”). But the imaginative artist who really glimpsed its potential was Fortunato Depero, a Futurist who loved to experiment with new materials. If buxus is now emerging from the shadows of the past, it is surely due to the furniture, inlays, panels, and boiseries he designed and created so long ago.