Being a country village Anghiari has always been a centre for artisan and craftsmen's workshops. The liberal government of the Camaldoli Abbots (12th-14th century) gave the perfect conditions for the expansion of the village with a lively market and artisan workshops: potters, blacksmiths, stone masons, carpenters, builders, weavers, cabinet-makers, shoemakers, millers, cloth makers, felters and gunsmiths. Building may well have been the most important trade at that time in Anghiari as stone masons and carpenters were the only ones to be specifically mentioned in the statutes. Between the 16th and 19th centuries metal working including wrought iron and the production of weapons such as guns and pistols became very successful with many specially rare or beautiful pieces now being held in both Italian and foreign museums.

The Tuscan economy received a strong boost in the 18th century from the new policies of Grand Duke Leopold I. It is also true that manufacture in Anghiari gained many advantages from its surrounding area: the woods which supplied fuel for the forges and the iron and copper mines at Monti Rognosi, between Montauto and Ponte alla Piera, along the old Roman road.

But most of all, this area had a great hand craft tradition ready to train highly skilled workers.

At the beginning of the last century the population of Anghiari was five thousand and the town contained a wool factory with 30 workers, a hide and leather tannery with 6 workers, a shutter and balustrade factory, wool dye-works with 25 employees, 20 potters and gunsmiths, 13 water mills and 6 blacksmiths.The fabric making industry needed 98 hectares of hemp fields and 147 hectares of flax and the cultivation of woad to obtained a special blue dye for the fabric. In 1833 the following enterprises were considered the most important: a wool-factory, 8 felting-mills, 5 dye-works, 2 felt-hat factories, 2 armourers, a surgical instruments manufacturer, 2 gun-powder makers, 3 pottery kilns, a brick works and a lime works. There were also lots of linen weavers and ironsmiths. Right up until the last century handcrafts in Anghiari remained entirely traditional.

The art of typography grew up in the area and a musical instrument factory became important. Amongst the products that have been most prized we can mention the terracotta crockery shown by Mr.Mondini and Mr. Luconi, famous potters from Anghiari, at the Universal Exhibition in Viena in 1873 or the shoes made by the craftsman Desidero Allegretti shown at the Milan Exhibition in 1910 and in 1935 the lute-maker Milton Poggini received a gold medal at the International Arts Exhibition in Paris.

Because of its worthy past Anghiari wanted to create a structure which would allow it to build on its past traditions and, at the same time, respond to the new needs of the modern world. Consequently in 1962 a decree of the President of The Italian Republic established a new school in Anghiari, the Istituto Statale d'Arte, for the art of wood working and antique furniture restoration.

The Mostra Mercato dell'Artigianato, which takes place in Anghiari every year at the end of April, represents the rediscovery and appreciation of those craftsmen, heirs of a famous past, who show the products of their skill, diligence and originality.