In the Chianti, it was necessary to be craftsmen from birth. This is no exaggeration but rather a condition imposed by listing in the country in times when the inhabitants of the contado lived on the verge of poverty, making the mother of virtue a necessity. A consultation of the accurate study by Elio Massei specifically examines the local craftsmanship.
It informs us about its origins and growth. It is no surprise therefore, when we discover that the early professional carpenters appear in the countryside only in the 19th century. Until the beginning of the following century, besides the blacksmiths who had always forged iron for different uses, the only craftsmen who did work for others were the coopers and cartwrights.
The former, skillful constructors and restorers of barrels, the latter, specialists in the construction of carts for agricultural work. Both trades were linked to the rural economy. Moreover, in the countryside, poverty prevented the grouwth of a relationship based on supply and demand. Indeed, the only customers financially capable of purchasing products directly from craftsmen were probably the landowners, those same owners of sumptuous palaces in Florence and Siena. But on the farms of the signori, which were closed, self-sufficient units, these craftsmen worked as smiths, joiners and carpenters because they were the jacks-of-all-trades living there on the spot and, when necessary, offered their services, compensated with food and lodging. They were often provided with workshops and small furnaces to bake tiles and bricks to be used for the rehabilitation and transformation of buildings included in the property.
Therefore, in the Chianti and all over the Countryside, people were born craftsmen because they had to learn to produce the articles for their own household, starting from wood which had to be filed, carved and then transformed into functional rustic everyday objects, simple beautiful chests which have now become rare and expensive, owing to an unstable market, subject to the changes of fashion. People have discovered the pleasure of having one of these simple pieces in their homes, without intarsia and carving, made in rough wood for practical reasons and not merely to please the eye. This furniture does not belong to any school or style and is appreciated for its essential beauty. This ancient, almost innate ability has, with time, led these craftsmen to put their century-old experience to good use. And now, the great grand-children of these craftsmen, accustomed to poverty, have finally turned their heritage into an asset by giving birth to trades which distinguish minor crafts, typical of the products of the Chianti. A familiar craftsmanship offers the delicate art of embroidery, straw articles or kitchen utensils obtained from olive and chestnut wood.
But ceramics and cotto are the crucial products on which the basics of the local handicraft economy is centered, the cotto of Impruneta and the Chianti.
The red cotto, which takes on more intense and severe tones in the Florentine and lighter and softer hues in the Sienese tradition is a daily reference point for Florentines, Sienese and Chiantigiani. Floors, tiled roofs, urns and pots, in short, what builders call ’round cotto’- and ’square cotto’ reveal their dual nature, constructive and decorative, in every village and every town. It can be seen on the floors of many Florentine and Sienese churches and libraries and on the rooftops that cover the most beautiful dwellings of Tuscany.
We wonder why a craft which is flourishing today, has developed in this particular area.
We will see that the first documents, showing the use of clay, date back to the 11th century: it marks the beginning of this tradition mainly in Impruneta but we should also say, in the Chianti, on condition that we identify the territory of those times as being the same geographic area as that of the present. But there is no doubt that this craft had already been employed for a long time. The craftsmen of cotto were first members of the guild of Doctors and Apothecaries and later, of Wine-makers.
In 1308, in Impruneta, the potters even united to form an independent guild, an evident sign of an activity that was already well established. In those times, it was the custom to serve wine in earthenware and in this area, wine has always been a faithful daily companion.
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See also:

Baking Earth is An Art, The Last Chianti Barrel Maker, Maniera, a Craftsman Shop in Chianti, The Search for The Beautiful in Chianti: Julia

Or go back to Trades and Crafts of Chianti