We at Millie's Hallmark are excited to offer our customers the exclusive chance to meet Emanuele Fontanini of the Fontanini® Heirloom Nativity® product line.  Emanuele will be on hand on December 9, 2012 to autograph pieces, meet Arizona's Fontanini collectors, and chat with customers.  Please call the store at 480-893-3777 for more details or to reserve your pieces.

Beginning in the mid 1990s, following the deaths of his father Ugo and Uncle Piero, Emanuele became the head of the Fontanini brand, which at the time had already been in his family for over eight decades.  A young man at the time, Emanuele has led the company to new heights in the past twenty years.  In his current role, Emanuele acts as the liaison between the sculptors, including Master Sculptor Elio Simonetti, and the artisans who translate original sculpts into finished pieces. In addition to his responsibilities with the family business, Emanuele enjoys playing golf and spending time which his son Michele. Emanuele made his first collector appearance in 1989. Since then, he has joined members of his family to make personal appearances on national retailer tours. As a result of extensive personal tour appearances, Emanuele has become a popular personality at U.S. collectible stores.

Since 1908, the House of Fontanini has created magnificient old-world scupltures treasured by collectors and revered by worshippers the world over.  Today, Emanuele, Luca, Marco, and Stefano Fontanini are the fourth generation to lead the celebrated House of Fontanini in the village of Bagni di Lucca, Italy, where it was founded over a century ago.  Priding themselves on "Building Family Traditions," these young men are honore to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfather, and great-grandfather.  Breathtaking in detail and workmanship, Fontanini Nativites are comprised of lifelike figures and historically researched structures that together present an extraordinary step back in time to biblical Bethlehem.

Millie's Hallmark, winner of the "Best Fontanini Display 2012" award, is proud, along with distribution partner Roman, to host Emanuele Fontanini for this signing event.