Giuseppe Maggiolini was born in Parabiago on November 13, 1738. Until the age of twenty, he worked as an apprentice to the carpenter managing the small workshop at the Cistercian monastery of Sant'Ambrogio della Vittoria. He took to heart the lessons he received in drawing and architecture and, while still very young, opened his own workshop facing the square of his hometown. His artistic taste—nascent yet already promising—did not go unnoticed, first by his fellow townsfolk and later by local notables.

Thanks to the interest shown by Levati, the workshop received many important commissions, eventually establishing Maggiolini as the preeminent Italian master of marquetry.

From the very beginning of his career, he showed a clear aversion to wood carving and gilding; instead, he skillfully decorated his pieces using plays of color and contrast, achieved through the wide variety of wood types he incorporated into his work. The imaginative interplay of color gradations can be attributed to the list of 86 wood types he employed—both exotic and native varieties—which were often immersed in red-hot sand to create specific shading effects.

With their expansive surfaces, pieces such as chests of drawers, nightstands, cabinets, and tables provided the ideal canvas for Maggiolini to express his artistic calling.

His son Francesco, along with various collaborators and apprentices—including Maffezzoli and Mezzanzanica—worked alongside him in the shop. At the height of the workshop's success, the team included over thirty craftsmen.

With the advent of the Napoleonic Court, the workshop felt the impact of a shift in taste that favored furniture richly adorned with bronze mounts over pieces featuring marquetry. Maggiolini passed away in his native Parabiago on November 16, 1814, leaving his son as his heir and successor in the workshop.