THE NAME MARCHISIO WAS first officially heard in the goldsmithy of Turin in 1649 when Gian Piero Marchisio, working with Joannin Marchisio, was nominated jeweller of the Royal Family. Felice Marchisio was born in Turin in 1846. He began working in 1859 in his older brother’s (Antonio) goldsmithy in order to help his widowed mother and twelve siblings. Due to the transfer of the Italian capital from Turin to Florence and the consequent economic crisis that ensued, he later moved to Paris to learn the new processing techniques and to refine his manual skills.Following the siege of Paris by Prussian troops, Felice escaped and returned to Turin taking bade with him the best of the laboratory workers.That’s why today the technical terminology is still in french. With his brother he founded the “Marchisio Bros”, its headquarters located downtown on the Via Po. The company rapidly grew , becoming the biggest and most important of the town. Cooperating with the goldsmith’s ateliers they first projected and later constructed the 14 Kg. gold jewellery box, later donated from Turin to the future Queen Margherita, Umberto I’s wife. In 1880?s the personnel had risen to more than 100 workers. In 1903 Felice Marchisio started with Sir Ghirardi the Turin Goldsmith’s art school, whose first student was his son Francesco. In the first decade of the 1900?s his sons, Napoleone Francesco and Giuseppe, started working in the firm. In 1913 Felice was nominated “Knight of Labour” having constituted the first Italian firm to produce handmade gold chains of hollow filigree.