The Great Development from the 19th to the 20th Centuries
For the whole of the 19th century and part of the 20th, the glassworks mainly produced objects for domestic use. There was however a demand, quite small in numerical terms, for valuable objects. At that time, automated production did not exist: glasses and bottles were still manufactured by hand. The workshops were numerous and employed a reasonable number of people, even though agriculture still remained the principal activity in the district. Gradually however, as the years passed, industry grew in importance, and the most highly developed industrial sector was the manufacture of glass. The women lent a hand to boost the family budget by weaving raffia around the wine bottles.

So it is correct to say that the ‘diabolic’ fruit of the fiery furnaces brought to Empoli not only a major opportunity for development, but also the chance of cultural and social development. And indeed the glassmakers, among whom master craftsman had a role of absolute pre-eminence, were well paid compared with the rest of the industrial workforce of the time. Already from the time of the unification of Italy in the 1860s there were enterprises of considerable dimensions which resulted in the growth of real entrepreneurial dynasties, such as the Nardi, Del Vivo and Montepagani families. The glass of Empoli accompanied the development of Italy, being present, in modest yet continuous fashion, on the dinner tables of an important slice of Italian society.
The years between the two World Wars marked the period of maximum activity for the Empoli glassworks. In 1934 the glasswork industry was employing 1,300 workers and 2,000 raffia-plaiters. On the eve of the Second World War the glass industry in Empoli was producing 1,600,000 objects in white glass, 30,000 square metres of products for windows, 30,000 demijohns, 600,000 flasks and 200,000 bottles. The workforce counted 4,300 workers and 5,000 raffia-plaiters.
At the end of the 1920s, the Vetreria Taddei, the Taddei Glassworks, began to produce, alongside its usual green buffet glass, artistic objects which marked it out in the Italian market as one of the most innovative and creative businesses in Italy, able to define and satisfy Italian taste. At the international shows of the time, Empoli’s green glass objects rivalled the products from Murano. The magazine Domus, edited by Gio Ponti, devoted constant attention to the production of the Taddei Glassworks.