They were affixed to the facades of the farmhouses with the coat of arms of the noble family of the farm. This tradition was in use since the mid-fourteenth century, typical especially of the famous Florentine artist family "Della Robbia".

The Malaspina was a noble of Lombard Italian family [citation needed], descended from Obertengo strain of the Marquis of Tuscany, who held, beginning with the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the many feuds of the Lunigiana, from the fourteenth century, the Marquis of Massa Carrara and lordship, then principality of Massa Carrara and Marquis.