The art of moulding clay to produce pieces of pottery is quite ancient. In the past, this kind of handicraft was diffused all over the region (in particular in Guardiaregia, Trivento and Campobasso) as the raw material, a good-quality, earth-like pastry was easily to find in different zones of the region.
The first well-known potter of the Molise was a master Sabin who worked in the Middle Ages; we haven’t any important, historical testimonies about him, but we can affirm that he belonged to this land because of the origin of his name.
Successively, in the 14th century the Benedictine monks of the High Molise kept going to improve the art of moulding earth-like materials; since then, in different towns of the province of Isernia, people started to produce pieces of baked clay.
In Isernia, at the end of the 18th century, the duke of Pescolanciano, Pasquale Maria D’Alessandro, set up a laboratory in order to produce porcelain and majolica. The productions were of good quality, either from the artistic point of view (the best painters and printers of the epoch went to Pescolanciano) and the quality of tinned pottery. According to the tradition, the incredible success of manufactures aroused the envy of the Royal Farm of Capodimonte manager, whom ordered to destroy it.