Valentini, a French manufacturer from Lyon, produced a wide range of hurricane lanterns over more than half a century. This history draws on my own research, on the work of Fred Smith, and on documents and family history shared directly by descendants of both the Valentini family and the Mosoni family — my thanks to all of them.

Valentini was a French manufacturer based in Lyon that produced a wide range of hurricane lanterns. The company traded under several different names over the decades, and not every date below is fully confirmed — some are estimates without documentary proof.

A Valentini invoice from 1908 refers to "Anc.ne Maison" (former trading firm) Jh Mosoni & Cie, with Valentini & Bonjour listed as "Successeurs" — successors. The company's story therefore starts here.

Joseph Mosoni, a tinsmith from Domodossola, Italy, started a hardware and lighting business in Lyon in 1860 with his brother Laurent. They started on Rue St Marcel, but moved later on to the 1 Rue St André.

A young Jérémie Jean Valentini — later Antoine Valentini's father — worked for the Mosoni brothers at this business before 1871, then left for Narbonne. Joseph's own son and intended successor died in 1889, leaving Joseph without an heir. Joseph then travelled to Nîmes and asked Jérémie — a former employee and, by marriage, part of the wider Mosoni family — to take over. Jérémie moved to Lyon in October 1889 and ran the business as acting director until it was formally registered as Valentini et Bonjour in 1903.

Jh. Mosoni was formally dissolved on 24 October 1903. The Mosoni name also turns up later alongside Basset & Pasini, who took over the factory at 1 Rue St André when Valentini relocated in 1920, along with part of Valentini's production and trade — though Basset & Pasini didn't produce hurricane lanterns themselves, but in a catalogue a Feuerhand hurricane lantern showed up.

Valentini et Bonjour was formally registered in 1903, with Antoine Jérémie Jean Valentini as one of the principals alongside his associate Mr. Bonjour — though as described above, the family had effectively run the business since 1889 through Antoine's father.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything about Mr. Bonjour — he was likely only involved with the company for a short time, or perhaps stayed mostly in the background.

Jérémie Jean Valentini (1846–1911) was born in Préglia, Italy. His father, Giacomo Valentini, was killed fighting in the Italo-Austrian War in 1859, when Jérémie was 13. His mother, Maria Mosoni, died in 1871, swept away by an avalanche near Bognanco while fetching water — her body wasn't recovered until the snow melted in March. She left behind two daughters and Jérémie.

With the family's finances collapsed after his father's death, Jérémie went to work as a travelling peddler around Narbonne, and later trained as a pewter craftsman under Dante Morganti, a tin-ware artisan in Nîmes. He married Marie Robert in Montpellier in May 1868, at age 22, and obtained French naturalisation in 1894.

Antoine Jérémie Jean Valentini

Jérémie appears to have later returned south — he died in Nîmes in 1911, not Lyon — while Antoine is recorded as a principal of Valentini et Bonjour from its formal registration in 1903. Antoine was born in 1868 in Nîmes and married Apollonie Rivolta (born in Béziers in 1864), whose mother Thérèse Mosoni was Joseph Mosoni's sister. Antoine's own son, Marius Mathieu Valentini, was born in Lyon in 1892.

The Valentini family originated in Domodossola. They were originally tinsmiths and craftsmen who travelled from town to town with their tools, before settling in Provence to open an ironmonger's shop, and later in the Lyon suburbs, where they made metal tubs and buckets that gradually replaced traditional wooden ones — lighter, easier to handle and stack, and more hygienic. Production later expanded to saucepans, washing machines, and hot water bottles.

Marius Mathieu Valentini

Between 1907 and 1911, Valentini et Bonjour filed several patents, including patent 427993 in 1911 for a tube-cleaning mechanism.

Before the First World War, Valentini's hurricane lanterns weren't made in France but in Beierfeld and/or Erfurt, Germany. Research with Jörg Wekeman points to Firma Nier as the likely manufacturer — a German Nier patent shows an identical glass-lifting mechanism, and there are several parallels between the "President" lantern made by Nier and sold by Ludwig Hutzler, and Valentini's Bonjour lantern.

Marius Valentini grew up in the family business, trained as a ferblantier, and spent time working in the Erzgebirge, Saxony, before the war. In 1914 he was mobilised but found unfit for combat duty due to poor eyesight, and spent most of the war performing support functions in the Service Auxiliaire, finishing his service in Kaiserslautern, Germany, around August 1919.

In 1920 the company name changed from Valentini & Bonjour to Valentini, Genin & Cie, and the business moved to 46 Rue de la Duchère. The change reflected a partnership between Marius Valentini — recently returned from his wartime service — and Jean Genin at the new site, which was set up specifically for mass-producing hurricane lanterns; production improvements allowed for around 300 lanterns a day.

The business also narrowed its focus. Before 1920 the catalogue ran to hundreds of items; two catalogues from 1924 list only alcohol heaters, hot water cylinders, and hurricane lanterns — though the range widened again over the decade to include equipment for collecting and processing infant milk, acetylene welding systems, and shelving and storage bins for factory use, sold both retail in Lyon and wholesale across France and its territories. The company also sold alcohol-burning stoves such as the Gazmieu (which could run on kerosene or alcohol) and the wickless L'Express burner.

Under this name the company filed several lantern-related patents, most notably a lever mechanism for the glass-lifting system and a bracket for hanging a lantern flush against a wall.

Despite the name lasting only seven years, Valentini is still known by the abbreviation V&G, partly because its lantern glass was marked with the letters VG inside a circle.

Marius Valentini married Colette Roche in 1921 and travelled widely to grow the customer base — visiting small ironmongers as well as major retailers like Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, Le Bon Marché, and La Samaritaine, plus the army and navy. Colette gradually took over staff and inventory management, along with the company's administration.

The next name change came in 1927, from Valentini, Genin et Cie to Valentini Fils et Cie — likely after Marius Valentini bought out Jean Genin. It's unclear whether "Fils" (son) refers to Marius continuing his father's business, or to a son of his own.

Around 1931 the name changed again, most likely because Marius Valentini had taken full control of the business, making the "Fils" addition unnecessary.

From 1938, Valentini also set up a separate venture at 17–19 Rue Gisguet in Saint-Denis with a Mr. Marceau, producing industrial boilers under the name Société Tolindus. Jean Tourteau managed this company until 1950, after which Raymond Maur took over. From 1946 the full company name appears as Société Anonyme Des Etablissements Valentini & Cie.

During the 1930s, company leadership passed to Marius's father-in-law, Alphonse Roche, who became president and director general. When Alphonse died in 1941, his wife Caroline Roche succeeded him, and she in turn was succeeded by her daughter — Marius's wife, Colette Valentini — around 1947. Marius returned to the presidency a few years later, before stepping back from active management in the early 1950s; a series of company presidents followed, including his sister Antonia.

Antoine Valentini died in 1941. The company's Lyon factory was hit during the Allied bombing of 26 May 1944, and invoices as late as 1946 still apologised for delivery delays caused by the damage.

On 3 May 1949, Société Tolindus took over the Valentini business, a transition marked by a labour dispute between the two companies. Marius Valentini died in 1956. Valentini & Cie filed further patents in 1964 and 1966, but the company appears to have ceased operating by 1970.

Delcampe.net (old invoices), gallica.bnf.fr and retronews.fr (historical newspaper articles), Inpi.fr (patent records), Geneanet (genealogical records), the research of Fred Smith (The Valentini Businesses of Lyon, France, 2024), and family documents shared by descendants of the Valentini and Mosoni families.

Particular thanks to descendants of both the Valentini family and the Mosoni family, who generously shared documents, photographs, and family history that made this more detailed account possible. Thanks also to Fred Smith, whose independent research into the Valentini and Mosoni families added valuable detail and confirmation to this page. Thanks as well to François Roche, who gathered genealogical research on Geneanet that led to contact with Marius Valentini's descendants, and who shared information on Marius's wife, Colette Roche, used in this history. Thanks too to Jörg Wekeman for sharing his research and thinking through the findings together, and to Henk Kloosterman and Simeon Denbaes, who sparked the interest in collecting hurricane lanterns that led to this page.