History of Ercolano

The History of Ercolano should start from its environment.

The Sorrentine peninsula boasts a secular tradition in the art of marquetry. From the first half of 800, talented Sorrentine artisans were the first to acquire such technique, which spread extensively all over the Neapolitan territory.

Thanks to the fame which Sorrento enjoyed as a holiday resort, many important people from the world of politics and international culture fame, had the opportunity to appreciate the skill of our master cabinet-makers, enough to be engaged by Francesco I of Bourbon for the restoration of furniture in the Royal Palace.

Before talking about the History of Ercolano we want to talk about the technique with which our products are created.

It is actually a decorative composition obtained by cutting, inserting and putting together different coloured pieces of wood to create a design or picture. These pieces are then set into a surface to create a design that is usually level with the surface. The art of handmade inlaid wood work is an old and noble Italian tradition typical of Southern Italy, especially the Sorrento area, and can only be performed by skilled and highly trained artisans whose craft is handed down from generation to generation. The first records of inlaid art go back to the Middle Ages where is was known as “Certosina Woodworks”. During the Italian Renaissance the artisans and their apprentices reached high artistic levels by copying the drawings of the many famous contemporary artists of that era. This age-old craft continues to flourish to the present day.

The beginning of the history of Ercolano

During the 40s Mr. Ercolano’s grandfather founded a little craftsman workshop, in which he learned to his own son Giuseppe the love for this traditional work,  which then specialized himself in a art school and continued this workshop developing it to a factory. Then his son Mr. Ercolano Orlando, the actual owner, during the 90s took over the society continuing the old craftsmanship and combining the modern art with the traditional inlaid techniques.

The History of Ercolano continues

During the first 90s, Mr. Ercolano developed the idea to match the artistic woodwork with the reproduction of contemporary artist’s paintings in order to give value to different techniques which are always artistique.

From this idea we started to improve the technique for producing the images to put in the lid of wooden musical boxes. In the mean time he provided to contact some famous artists of present-day, in this way we have obtained the licence to applicate their paintings on our boxes.

In this way we obtained the exclusive for images of the famous Hummel figurines and also for the paintings of artists like, Brenda Burke, Lena Liu, Rosina Wachtmeister, and others.

The method of producing the box is the same as for the inlaid one. The several steps of meticulous sanding, honing and varnishing are followed by the careful application of the image to the lid.

After the big success over the whole world of this music boxes with images we have started  with other images like the one of the famous impressionists, like Monet, Klimt, Van Gogh etc

The History of Ercolano continues still in these days.

The ancient inlaid art has been using to realize new modern collections of boxes characterised by geometric designs in order to meet also the young requirements.
This new line of boxes has been created by the mastery of artisans who have sapiently joined tradition and modernity. The new technique of the geometrical design, the refined combination of the colours and the particularity of the details in the features, make these boxes unique and inimitable and even more precious and luxury articles. Whoever decide to have one of these, will love it for ever.