João Correia
(1904-1976)
Born on March 16th ,1904 in the parish of São Pedro, in Imperatriz Dona Amélia street. Son of Manuel Correia, native of Santa Cruz parish and Maria Martinha Fernandes, native of the São Pedro parish.
He got married with Leonor Gomes Farinha (1907-1987), April 24th, 1926, native of the São Pedro parish. From this matrimony two children were born: Carlos Edmundo Bento Correia (1926-1994) and Maria Judite Correia (1928-2012).
João Correia started the carpentry art at the age of 12. At the age of 16 years, he started to practice inlay works and at 22 he becomes his own boss.
One of his most well- known pieces is a safe, 40 cm, embellished with the English flag and several British shields. It was ordered by an embroidery factory of Funchal, to protect a towel that was requested by the Portuguese colony in South Africa and intended as a gift to princess Isabel. It may have been delivered during the visit to South Africa and Rhodesia (1947) on the day the future queen completed 21 years old.
Another piece by João Correia is a wooden inlaid box with regional symbols and a view of Câmara de Lobos village, which served as packaging for the embroidered towel, with which the civil governor of Funchal, captain-of-the-sea-and-war, João Inocêncio Camacho de Freitas (1899-1969), gifted princess Maria Pia de Saboia, in 1955, when she visited Madeira. She came with her husband prince Alexandre da Jugoslávia (1924-2016) in honeymoon, on February 23rd to March 9th ,1955.
Between 1951 and 1958, João Correia made cigarette and playing card boxes with inlays on the top, jewellery boxes, and a box then valued at 500 escudos for the Madeira Tourism Board. These artefacts were intended for institutional offers.
Invited by the Madeira Tourism Board, João Correia, participated in the Exhibition of Regional Industries, that took place on the 7th and 8th of January 1957, in Quinta Vigia, in a filming context, directed by Louis dew Rochemont Cinemirade Productions Inc.
According to his granddaughter Graça Maria Faria, her grandfather taught inlay work during a short period in the 60s, at Escola Industrial do Funchal. He never had a studio open to the public, he worked on commission and for artefacts shops.
João Correia passed away on February 13th, 1976, at 71 years old. He lived in Coronel Cunha Street, nº26, Santa Maria Maior parish.
