Book Review: Italian Jewelry in the 20th Century
This richly illustrated book offers a chronological history of jewelry produced in Italy from 1900 to 1990. Author Melissa Gabardi, a decorative arts historian and curator, presents these jeweled treasures in layers of context. Throughout the book, she provides readers with historical perspectives on the political, social, and economic events that shaped Italian society, and the world, during the different eras. Among the gripping illustrations is one from the Sunday weekly La Domenica del Corriere from December 1935, during Italy’s Fascist period, depicting Mussolini’s invented “Wedding Ring Day.” It shows a woman’s hand as she drops her gold wedding ring into an upturned soldier’s helmet, filled with others’ wedding rings and festooned in the colors of the Italian flag. Below, the caption reads, “L’offerta d’amore e di fede delle donne d’Italia” (“The offer of love and faith by the women of Italy,” using fede, a word for “faith” that also means “wedding ring”).
Gabardi provides additional context with a 26-page section containing the biographies of the more than 70 Italian jewelry artists, families, and houses presented or referenced in this book. She includes the long-established Torrini family, whose Florence goldsmith workshop opened in 1369, and the line of Musys, jewelers to generations of royalty, who began in Turin in 1707. The biographical sketches help readers less familiar with Italian jewelry history navigate the sometimes tortuous text as Gabardi describes the influences of other jewelers or methods and motifs that emerged across the eras.
Finally, the more than 300 images are bookended by four chapters written by three contributors who provide additional insights into the master goldsmith nucleus of the innovative Padua School, the transformation of Arezzo from a town known for industrial workshops to “Made in Italy” cache, the handcrafting and goldsmithing rise of Valenza, and the expansion of the gold industry in Vicenza.
The mostly full-color images are drawn from a wide range of sources and help frame the actual photographs of these captivating pieces, 150 of which were part of a four-month exhibit at Milan’s Poldi Pezzoli Museum until March 2017. The book features archival images from magazines, posters, and sales catalogues, as well as lithoprints and sketches. The jewelry includes museum pieces and dozens of rarely seen pieces from private collections and the archives of the individual jewelry houses, such as the Fasano and Floriana Cusi Archives. Among the many standout pieces are the rings and brooches of Enrico Serafini (1913–1968) of Florence. Gabardi does not neglect the killer B’s of Buccellatti and Bulgari or later-century jewelers known for luxury fashion and celebrity clientele, such as Pomellato and Damiani.
The author’s diligent research also preserves the legacy of lesser-known Italian jewelers, including those who broke with earlier French influences. Gabardi provides a comprehensive, sensitive, and scholarly appreciation for many Italian jewelers who might otherwise be lost to the ages, whether through lack of successors, failed partnerships, tragedy, or engulfment by global tastemakers. These pioneers ushered in waves of jewelry artistry rooted in an Italian spirit that survived the setbacks of war and hardship to emerge as an international paragon of craftsmanship and style.
Although the writing style sometimes takes readers on a bumpy ride, the book offers those who hold on a panoramic journey that captures the origins of modern Italian design. Jewelry designers, historians, and lovers of all things Italian will appreciate this uniquely curated effort.
