Bianca Cappello Archives

Fratelli Peruzzi, a book on the history of Florentine jewelry

Published on March 16, 2023

Ranieri e Grace di Monaco davanti alla gioielleria Peruzzi, 8 maggio 1957. Archivio Fratelli Peruzzi

Among those who appreciated the jewels of the Fratelli Peruzzi jewelery and silverware in Florence, there were also Prince Ranieri of Monaco and his wife, Grace Kelly. Witness a black and white image with the couple in front of the company’s Florentine workshop, surrounded by the usual onlookers and fans, who today would probably be followers. The work of this historic Florentine establishment is now collected in a book, Jewels in Florence, Archivio Fratelli Peruzzi (1880-1970), published by the Sillabe publishing house of Livorno and written by the jewelery historian Bianca Cappello. Objective: to make a piece of the history of Italian artisan jewelery better known to the general public.

Disegno per anelli in oro in stile Cinquecento, matita, inchiostro, acquerello su carta, anni ’30 del Novecento. Archivio Fratelli Peruzzi

Inside is described in 297 pages and with the help of 300 images, almost a century of goldsmith production, with drawings and photographs of the Fratelli Peruzzi jewelery and silverware. Founded in Florence in 1880, the Maison has worked between Italy and America, with a shop in Boston and a workshop and sales on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

There are stories that cannot be kept in the attic, which is why I wanted all the documentary material of Fratelli Peruzzi’s activity to be studied and valued. Thus, coming out of its casket, it can be kept forever in everyone’s memory.
Laura Giannoni Peruzzi, managing director of Fratelli Peruzzi

1. Giuseppe Peruzzi e il suo staff nel laboratorio di argenteria e oreficeria in Borgo San Jacopo a Firenze, 1919. Archivio Fratelli Peruzzi

It was an honor to be able to study this remarkable archive of drawings, photos and models of Florentine jewelery and silverware. Valuing it did not mean only bringing to light the history of the Peruzzi family through careful documentary research, but also being able to tell something more about the history of Italian-style jewelery (as it was called in the 19th century), characterized by original and autonomous distinctive elements compared to the so-called fashionable jewelery of Paris or London.
Bianca Cappello

Jewels in Florence, Jewels in Florence, Fratelli Peruzzi Archive 1880 – 1970, Edited by Sillabe 2022 Preface Luigi Salvadori Introduction Dora Liscia Bemporad With a text by Samuele Magri Italian and English text 237 pages with over 300 color images Paperback binding (28 euro ) and hardcover (32 euros).

Foto anni Trenta di gioielli Peruzzi realizzati tra la fine del XIX e il primo trentennio del XX secolo della tipologia che a Firenze è conosciuta come Stile Antico. Archivio Fratelli Peruzzi

Disegno di bracciali, inchiostro, acquerello e biacca su carta telata, anni Venti-Trenta. Archivio Fratelli Peruzzi

Discovering glass jewels

Published on October 5, 2022

news

Spilla a forma di galletto, vetro avventurina, oro giallo, oro bianco, diamanti, gemme sintetiche, Italia, 1940-1950

A jewel that uses glass is not considered precious. Nothing more wrong. Because glass in jewelry is a noble material that inspires creativity and passion. This is testified by an exhibition (23 April-16 October) organized at the Bijou Museum in Casalmaggiore. The title leaves no doubt: Glass. Italian jewels between 800 and 900. The exhibition, curated by Bianca Cappello, collects over 300 pieces of designer jewels and period documents that used this strong fragile material: long and colorful sautoir from the beginning of the century, Deco-style bracelets , millefiori murrine, Roman micro mosaic jewels made for the Grand Tour, large multi-strand necklaces and collars made with tiny beads to match the sartorial cocktail dresses of the Sixties.

Again: bouquet earrings from the 1950s, flower-child-style jewelry from the 1960s inspired by Native Americans, crystals from the 1980s, up to the experimental creations of great designers and artists. Before the advent of plastic, glass was considered the material par excellence in the creation of jewelry, a sort of symbol of the social evolution of women: from angel of the hearth to flapper, from lady of good society to career woman, from daughter minimalist ethereal flowers.

From prehistoric times to today, the glass jewel has been able to move in step with the language, ingenuity and aesthetics of society, always managing to tell it and show its characteristics. The glass in the jewel is fragile and indestructible at the same time, it is a material that tells the very high level achievable with artistic craftsmanship and that, in the last two centuries, has become a protagonist in the jewels of the fashion system, as well as in the jewelery of research and design.
Bianca Cappello, curator of the exhibition

Glass is a difficult material to obtain and work with, so much so that in history it was considered a secret by a few masters and for this reason they jealously guarded. Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, following the industrialization process, glass diversified its identity: on the one hand a product of the finest and highest craftsmanship subject to technical and artistic experimentation for luxury and refined jewels, on the other an industrial item for the general public used in low-cost jewelry. The staging of the exhibition was designed and built by the Iranian designer Sogand Nobahar, reworking recycled glass.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the glass bead became an indispensable accessory in the elegant and seductive clothing of the modern woman and regained its fascinating role over the centuries, from Cleopatra to Elisabetta Gonzaga.
Augusto Panini, co-curator of the exhibition

Ercole Moretti, Collane con piastre di vetro a mosaico con occhi, Murano (VE), 1968

Glass. Italian jewels between the 1800s and 1900s
curated by Bianca Cappello and Augusto Panini
From 23 April to 9 October 2022 – opening on Saturday 23 April at 3.30 pm
Bijou Museum
Via Porzio 9, 26041 Casalmaggiore (Cremona) Opening hours: from Tuesday to Saturday: 10.00-12.00 / 15.00-18.00; Sundays and holidays: 15.00-19.00. Entrance to the exhibition and museum: full € 3.00; reduced € 2.50. Free for school groups and holders of the Lombardia Museums Subscription. Distances: 25 km from Parma, 40 from Cremona and Mantua, 140 from Milan. Telephone: 0375 284424 205344
Catalog Bianca Cappello, Augusto Panini, Glass Jewels from Prehistory to the III Millennium, Antiga editions, 300 pages, text in Italian with over 300 color images. Format 24×30 cm, hardcover. Cover price 39 euros

Sautoir, perle di vetro da canna molata e conterie, Venezia, anni venti del XX secolo

Collana, perle di vetro a lume fiorate montate in filo di metallo, Venezia, XIX secolo

The challenge of Roma Jewelry Week

Published on September 20, 2022

news

Rome against Milan? Is it a contrast between the two Italian cities, or just a coincidence? Jewelry Week is back in Milan (20-23 October). And a week before the second edition of the Rome Jewelry Week (7 to 16 October) is staged. Like last year, the event is promoted by the Incinque Open Art Monti association, which involved over 150 international designers. The idea of replicating the week dedicated to jewelry, which has become a tradition in Milan (apart from the pause due to the pandemic) is by the architect Monica Cecchini, curator and director of the project, with the advice of Barbara Brocchi, creative manager, illustrator, writer, designer and coordinator of the jewelry design department Ied-Rome, of Bianca Cappello, teacher, historian and critic of the jewel.

The event will start on Thursday 22 September with the preview of the second edition of RJW: Natura Inversa, Myriam Bottazzi’s solo show in the Incinque Open Art Monti Gallery. There will be jewelry designers, Roman goldsmiths, jewelry ateliers, galleries, academies, schools and associations.

Esposizione all'Auditorium Mecenate 2021 — Esposizione all’Auditorium Mecenate 2021

The 2022 theme is Grand Tour – The colors of travel, a tribute to the eighteenth-century Grand Tour era. A new concept of Grand Tour also aimed at recovering cultural exchanges and professional and interpersonal relationships. On Friday 7 October the inauguration at the Incinque Open Art Monti Gallery of the Innovare conservando exhibition of the Neo Roman School of Contemporary Jewelery, which uses the concept of innovation as an experiment in research of original informal aesthetic languages, while preserving the traditions of belonging linked to the exaltation of manual techniques, with the curatorship of Claudio Franchi.

A performance is scheduled for Saturday 8 October at the Maam, Metropoliz’s Museum of the Other and Elsewhere. with an exhibition in which dance and jewelry will dialogue with visitors. On 9 October, a study day dedicated to jewelery design will be held at the Central Institute for Intangible Heritage (ICPI), curated by Lucia Ajello. Also this year, the Rome Jewelry Week will have the Incinque Jewels Award as its flagship event, a contest now in its third edition that promotes the culture of Contemporary Jewelery. The exhibition is organized in the archaeological site Auditorium di Mecenate, from 30 BC. The Auditorium will host an exhibition dedicated to the Roman yarn micromosaic: the works of the artists who revive the ancient technique that spread in Rome during the Grand Tour will be unveiled. , as a travel souvenir. Among the novelties there is the Jewelery Hall exhibition, an exhibition of contemporary jewelery works in the hall of the Bettoja Hotel Mediterraneo, and the Capsule Grand Tour, in the rooms of the noble floor of Palazzo Ferrajoli. The historic residence, in Piazza Colonna, will also host the exhibition dedicated to the drawings of one of the first Bulgari designers: Giovanni Valli.

There are also tours with guided visits led by qualified guides. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Homi Fashion & Jewels will also be present in Rome, an event organized by Fieramilano.

Jewels, but made in paper

Published on March 22, 2018

The jewels of paper (recycled): are the last frontier of sustainability ♦ ︎
It is very easy that none of the passionate readers of gioiellis.com will never buy a jewel made with paper. Which, then, is not a jewel but, if anything, an accessory, a decoration, a game. But if, by hypothesis, you like to use scissors and imagination to create something new, here is the book, indeed, an editorial project that’s right for you. It is called Carta Preziosa, the design of the paper jewel, and is curated by Bianca Cappello in collaboration with Comieco – National Consortium for the Recovery and Recycling of Cellulose-based Packaging, and by Skira Editore, Cartiera Paudice and Cartotecnica Print Finishing.
The book contains 21 «jewels», including necklaces, bracelets, rings and tiaras, made of colored cardboard, with 100% recycled material and colored with vegetable tints. These paper bijoux are to be built, worn and given away. The authors are 21 designers and contemporary artists who for years have made paper their main work tool. The presentation of the book-casket is scheduled for Monday, March 26, 2018 at 11.00, Sala Napoleonica of the Academy of Brera, in Milan.

Persia of jewels on exhibition

Published on November 21, 2017

news

Fateme Safar Talab, collane serie Lady Pomegranate

The jewels of ancient and modern Persia at the Bijou Museum of Casalmaggiore ♦ ︎
Persia is not just one of a thousand and one night. And it is not just the one that is sometimes read in the chronicles of geopolitics. There is also a Persia that has a millennial culture, which is also expressed with jewelery. Who is curious to know what art jewelry manufacture in Iran there are now, can go to visit an exhibit set up in the Bijou Museum of Casalmaggiore (Cremona, November 25 to January 28). The exhibition is called Splendid Persia, visions in Jewel, and curated by Bianca Cappello and the Iranian designer Sogand Nobahar. The exhibition proposes, of course, a selection of historical jewels, but also pieces of contemporary jewelery.
Among the ancient jewels are pieces that originate in ancient Mesopotamia, while among the contemporary jewels are those of great Iranian designers who reinterpret ideas and symbols of the Persian and Islamic traditions. Beside them, with a bold parallel, there is a selection of jewels made in Italy from the sixties to the 2000s thousand years, even those inspired by iconography, Persian colors and poetry. Surprisingly now you know that they exist. Moreover, with an even more surprising mix, the conceptual jewels of a group of young students from the Brera Design Academy’s Fine Art course are displayed.
Finally, the outline of the exhibition is exposed by the unpublished photographs of photographer Federico Wilhelm in Iran. Lavinia Andorno
Great Persia, Visions in Jewel
Bijoux Museum of Casalmaggiore
Via Porzio 9, Casalmaggiore (Cremona)
Timetable: Tuesday to Saturday: 10.00-12.00 / 15.00 – 18.00
Sundays and holidays: 15.00-19.00. Closed Christmas and New Year.
Admission: 3 Euros total; reduced 2.50 euros
Information and reservations: 0375 284424

Collane in corniola incisa, Bactriana III-X secolo d.C.

Collane in faiance, Persia, epoca sasanide VII secolo

Collana in giaietto e argento, secondo XII e XX

Maryam Azadegan, collana e bracciale in ricamo balouch

Nogol Zahabi, collare Dark Blue in ricamo Termeh

Sogand Nobahar, anello e bracciali serie MyCity, Teheran

The history of bijoux

Published on April 28, 2016

news

Do you like copyright bijoux? Are you hunting for jewelry that have made history? Would you like to collect earrings, rings and necklaces of the big names? Before you take your wallet, you can consult Storia della Bigiotteria Italiana, a book that collects the best of jewelery Made in Italy. A long history, has been presented in Milan by the author, Bianca Cappello, historian and critic of the jewel and published by Skira. The quality jewelery, design and interpretation, capable of dealing with the jewelry, has a history of the Unification of Italy and runs until today, by mixing together crafts and social history, fashion, traditions, customs and trends, not from last, culture. “As always, when dealing with such a complex subject is inevitable also take the history of artistic trends, in this case those of the twentieth century,” says Cappello. M.B.
History of Italian jewelery
Skira
2016 bilingual edition (Italian-English)
24 x 28 cm, 160 pages
152 color and 32 b / w, hardcover
Price: 40 €