Mr. Charilaou, 13 years old (1966), started as an apprentice with his brother working for the best craftsman in Athens, Dimitris Pantaleon, for 35 drachmas a day. His teacher, from Alexandria, Egypt, had a gift for carving in gypsum. He employed more than 30 people in his workshop. The best craftsmen then came out on the market, from this teacher and from the last to help him until he stopped working, were the Charilaou brothers. He gave everyone something carved of his own and the craftsman Stamatis, the griffin, made in the 70's. The experience of the Gypsum Craftsman is measured over the years but also by the quality of the works.
Villas of famous people such as Rena Vlachopoulou, Georgios Mavrou, George Papandreou A’ and others, were places with which the Gypsum Graftsmens of Dimitris Pantaleon enriched their experience in the art of gypsum. The Charilaou brothers opened their own workshop (1975) in Kalogreza Athens. They had the best supplies to cope with every requirement. At the same time, the older brother Konstantis Charilaou also worked on the copies of the Greek Archaeological Museum. Their know-how was at its zenith. The decentralization and reconstruction of the island brought the younger brother Stamatis to his hometown of Samos in the 1986, with the art of gypsum decoration being imprinted by the craftsman in every house, hotel and building that was required. To this day, the Plaster Casting Workshop is preserved as it left it, after its retirement in 2013, and keeps all the memories of this art.
The works of the Pantaleon crew included palaces, hotels, famous villas and countless houses and apartment buildings. The lion-shaped corbels of Great Britain still support its outdoor balconies. The later gypsum decorations in the Maximos Mansion to house the prime minister's needs are imposing. The "Kavouri" hotel in Vouliagmeni was supposed to accommodate the 12 wives and 25 children with their families of the exiled former king of Arabia, Ibn Saud. A new luxurious wing had to be created and decorated with the most beautiful gypsum.
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