Alessandro Mazzucotelli was born into a wealthy family of blacksmiths who founded their wealth on the demand for iron during the wars of the 18th and 19th centuries.
When he was eighteen the company fell on hard times and he moved to the Milan to complete his apprenticeship at Defendente Oriani. In 1891, six years later, he left the company and began to focus on his own work. Most of his designs were decorative features for buildings and his work took him to Italy, Germany and even to Thailand, where he provided ironwork for the buildings of the architect Annibale Rigotti in Bangkok.
His style was initially influenced by the Stile Liberty, the Italian variant of Art Nouveau, which he explored during his travels through Europe with the Italian furniture maker Eugenio Quarti. He took inspiration from the ideas of artists such as Burne-Jones, William Morris and Walter Crane in England and Émile Gallé in France.
