An Insight Into the Legacy & Successes of the Buccellati Fine Jewelry Firm
The Quality of Buccellati
All of the jewelry pieces created by the Italian fine jewelry firm are hand-made, from the alloyed metals to the engraving and stone setting. Machinery is used very little and only when necessary. Every surface is engraved by hand, and as the saying goes: there is No Untouched Gold. The brand also engages in the craft of non jewelry pieces, including silverware, silver plates and animal figurines.
Buccellati is famous for its rich textural gold jewelry and exquisite silver objects. The use of mixed metals such as the combinations of silver and gold and platinum and gold, is also typical. If gemstones are used in the jewelry piece, they are often unusual, such as large cabochons, carved emeralds, rubies, and rose-cut diamonds.
The Buccellati tradition of precision and quality continues today. As Gianmaria Buccellati masterfully explained, “The Buccellati concept focuses on beauty, art, class and the traditions of the past... Our jewels are entirely hand-made, with love, patience, and time by the best craftsmen in Italy... Our philosophy has never changed and never will; it represents the essence of our work.”
In short, the secret of the brand’s popularity and longevity is its focus on heritage, craftsmanship and passion.
Gianmara Buccellati: Jewelry Genius and a Figure of Prominence
After Mario Buccellati (the founder) died, one of the most prominent figures in the Buccellati business was Gianmaria Buccellati. Born in 1929 in Milan, he learned the business and the secrets of the trade, and along with three of his brothers and his two uncles, he continued the business and brought it to new heights.
In 1973, Gianmaria Buccellati, along with a group of professional colleagues, founded the Italian Gemological Institute (IGI), which he was the President of for 25 years. In 1979, only six years into his presidency of the IGI, Gianmaria Buccellati opened up a flagship store in Paris, on place Vendôme, confirming his status among the most prestigious jewellers of the world.
In 2001, Gianmaria Buccellati launched his first watch collection in Geneva during the SIHH exhibition. Six years later, inspired by the color of big and unusual stones, Gianmaria Buccellati designed a whole collection of Cocktail Rings. It was an itinerant collection which traveled about the world for one whole year, exciting all the admirers of the famous and unique Buccellati style.
Buccellati Public Recognitions
The exhibition “The Art of Buccellati” was held at the San Francisco Academy of Sciences in San Francisco (California) in 1995, and traveled on to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto the following year.
Another museum exhibition; “Buccellati: Art in Gold, Silver and Gems” opened at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. in 2001, featuring a retrospective of the work of Mario and Gianmaria Buccellati. At the same time, “Viaggio in Italia” (Trip to Italy) composed by the Italian composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima, made its debut at The Carnegie Hall in New York. The opera itself was commissioned by and dedicated to Gianmaria Buccellati.
Buccellati Pearls
In 2004 Buccellati organized the world preview of the Animalier collection in Milan, composed of 28 animal brooches created around extraordinary baroque pearls. Baroque pearls are those with irregular or non spherical shapes, common among cultured pearls. Gianmara Buccellati, however, saw in these pearls not imperfection, but the potential, and beauty of nature itself.
Each Animalier piece consists of one or more baroque pearled imbedded in silver or gold. Some figurines utilize gems for eyes or tongues, or engraved gold for branches and wings. The pearls themselves carry a unique irregularity, while conforming to the whole as well as any other pearl
Each animal design has a meaning and a story, as each one was designed to be a symbol of human nature.
