The objective of the book is exploring (through careful and rigorous archive research) the scenario of Italian twentieth-century jewellery by delving into the evolution of this art through chronological sectors illustrating different aspects of this production – approximately from 1900 until 1990. Various chapters in the book are dedicated to Neo-Historism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, to the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and ultimately from the 1960s to the 1990s while highlighting the difference and uniqueness of Italian jewels.
Alongside the works, many preparatory drawings still preserved in the archives of prestigious jeweller and private collections that have generously granted permission to consult these precious and mostly unexplored documents will be published in this book. In many cases, this will envisage the actual discovery of the identity of this great Italian production of millennial tradition. Renowned names will be present: Mario Buccellati, Alfredo Ravasco, the Musy family from Turin, the Petochi family from Rome. Particular attention will be paid to the 1960s and 1970s as they marked the birth of the new Bulgari style. The review will be presenting works created by the jeweller Mario Masenza in collaboration with painters and sculptors such as Afro, Cannilla, Capogrossi and Uncini, and the “new jewels” initiated by the brothers Arnaldo and Giò Pomodoro. During the 1980s and 1990s we have to mention the creations by Pomellato, Giò Caroli and Rivière.
The book comes to a conclusion with some in-depth studies of manufacturing centres of excellence in the Italian jewellery sector, such as Valenza, Vicenza, Arezzo and Padua School. The book comes to a close with the biographies of all the Italian jewellers and goldsmiths mentioned within, in addition to 350 unprecedented images including precious archive documents: sketches, photographs of models wearing vintage jewellery, colour/black and white photographs of jewellery specimens