It was founded in 1939 by Enrico Gabbianelli with its manufacturing plant in Cusano Milanino.

During the 1960s and 70s it also produced a series of ceramic objects for the home by prominent Italian designers.

In 2000, following a further period of consolidation and restructuring in the Italian ceramics industry, Bardelli, Gabbianelli, and several other brands became subsidiaries of the Biella-based Altaeco Group.

[1][2] Gio Ponti had a lengthy association with Gabbianelli while both Enzo Mari and Bruno Munari designed tiles for them in the 1970s when Gabbianelli was one of the first firms to introduce screen-printing into tile production.

[3] Gabbianelli domestic objects and tiles are held in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche [it] in Faenza, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.