Our roots date back to the late Nineteenth Century, with the profound artistic inclination of our ancestor Frediano Chiocchetti (Lucca 1871 – 1960, I generation). After his first studies, Frediano was welcomed into the workshops of well-known Florentine and Lucca masters of the time, where he devoted himself with passion to the art of engraving and chiseling. Favorite pupil of the great goldsmith Nicola Farnesi (Lucca 1836 – 1904) and scholar of the work of the French master Eugène Fontenay (Paris 1823 – 1887), Frediano creates numerous works of sacred art, still preserved today in public and private collections, including the Vatican. Due to his particular skills, Frediano was commissioned to teach drawing at the Lucca school of Bishop Giovanni Volpi (later the “Istituto degli Artigianelli”), where he remained for several years.

In 1896, his brother Angelo convinced him to combine commercial and artistic activities. Thus, the Ditta F.lli Chiocchetti was born which in 1912 moved to its current location, at number 20 of the historical via Fillungo. With the advent of the First World War, his brother Angelo and all the other employees are called up and Frediano brings in his, still young, son Alfredo (Lucca 1902 – 1993, II generation) to support the company. Once the conflict ended, Frediano went back to devoting himself to his chisels and burins in his own workshop, expanded with the production of high-end jewelry, leaving the management of the company to his son Alfredo. In 1919 Alfredo decided to open a summer branch in Viareggio which, in a short time, became a meeting place for illustrious personalities such as Giacomo Puccini, Lorenzo Viani and other exponents of the artistic-literary scene of the time. Unfortunately, the beginning of the Second World War and the German occupation forced its closure in 1942.