Claude Valsuani Death Certificate (1923)

The death certificate of Claude François Ange Roch Valsuani, issued September 9, 1923 in Malgrate (Lombardy, Italy), is the primary document confirming the identity of the foundry’s founder and his relationship to both his father Carlo and his son Marcel.

Certificate Details

• Full name: Claude François Ange Roch Valsuani
• Born: February 28, 1876, Crescenzago
• Date of death: September 9, 1923
• Place of death: Malgrate, Lombardy, Italy
• Age at death: 47 years
• Profession: Industriale (industrialist)
• Residence: Paris
• Father named as: fu Carlo (the late Carlo — explicitly acknowledging Carlo’s prior death)

Key Phrase

figlio di fu Carlo — “son of the late Carlo”

The phrase fu Carlo directly corroborates the 1886 death certificate: Carlo was already long dead. The family line is unambiguous and confirmed by official civil record.

Authentication Significance

This document confirms four things critical to authentication:

1. Identity: The foundry’s C. VALSUANI stamps reference Claude — born 1876, profession industriale, resident in Paris. Consistent with operating a Paris cire perdue foundry.
2. Parentage: Claude’s father was Carlo (died 1886), not “Marcello” — the Marcello myth has no genealogical basis whatsoever.
3. Founding window: Claude was active in Paris from 1899 until his death in 1923; he founded the foundry in 1908, the period in which it grew to prominence under Degas, Pompon, Brancusi, and others.
4. Italian origins: Born in Crescenzago, died in Malgrate — the Italian immigrant who built a cire perdue dynasty in Paris’s 14th arrondissement.