Buccellati Blossom Earrings
Late 20th Century Contemporary Dangle Earrings
Diamond, Sterling Silver
2010s Italian Stud Earrings
Sterling Silver
Vintage 1980s Italian Clip-on Earrings
Diamond, 18k Gold
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Thai Modern Stud Earrings
Diamond, Ruby, White Gold, 18k Gold
1990s Japanese Beaded Bracelets
Pearl, Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Stud Earrings
Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Stud Earrings
Citrine, Topaz, Blue Topaz, Silver, Sterling Silver
Early 2000s American Lever-Back Earrings
Pearl, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
Vintage 1960s Asian Retro Drop Earrings
Diamond, Gold
20th Century Dome Rings
Amethyst, Sapphire, 18k Gold
20th Century Italian More Bracelets
Gold
Vintage 1960s Renaissance Revival Clip-on Earrings
Diamond, Pearl, 18k Gold
2010s Turkish Modern Fashion Rings
Garnet, 14k Gold
2010s American Contemporary Dangle Earrings
Diamond, South Sea Pearl, 18k Gold, White Gold
20th Century French Fashion Rings
Pearl, Gold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary French Artist Clip-on Earrings
Pearl, 18k Gold
Vintage 1970s Italian Modernist Dome Rings
Sapphire, Blue Sapphire, Gold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
20th Century Italian Cluster Rings
Diamond, 18k Gold, White Gold, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Dome Rings
Topaz, Blue Topaz, Gold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
Recent Sales
Vintage 1970s Italian Contemporary Dangle Earrings
Diamond, White Gold
Early 2000s More Earrings
18k Gold, White Gold, Yellow Gold
Late 20th Century Italian Contemporary Drop Earrings
Sterling Silver
Late 20th Century Italian Contemporary Clip-on Earrings
Gold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold, Vermeil, Sterling Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Dangle Earrings
20th Century Italian More Earrings
18k Gold
20th Century Italian Stud Earrings
Diamond, 18k Gold, Sterling Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Italian More Earrings
Vermeil, Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Italian More Earrings
Diamond, Vermeil, Silver
Buccellati for sale on 1stDibs
In 1919, Mario Buccellati (1891–1965) launched his eponymous jewelry house with the opening of his first shop in Milan and quickly built a reputation for his richly embellished traforato, or finely pierced goldwork. The Ancona, Italy–born jeweler’s workmanship was in a class of its own. His pieces were exquisite, yet the gemstones themselves were never too flashy, elevated instead by the designs’ intricate metalsmithing.
A love of tradition set Mario and his fine jewelry house apart in the competitive Italian market and remains a point of pride for the family, which is still closely tied to the business even as it is now owned by Richemont, a luxury conglomerate that also counts Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels among its subsidiaries.
A young Mario Buccellati apprenticed with famed goldsmith Beltrami e Besnati in the early 1900s, although many of the goldsmithing techniques synonymous with Buccellati go as far back as the Italian Renaissance. The family lineage is also said to include 18th-century jeweler Contardo Buccellati.
Owing to the founder’s advanced metalworking skills, the brand is known for designs that feature metal with the delicacy of lace and draw on the wonders of the natural world. The house’s work is typified by intricate gemstone settings that emphasize their natural color and dense engraving techniques that transform the texture of gold.
One of the time-honored engraving techniques that has come to characterize Buccellati’s work — techniques that require apprenticeships and training in the fine jeweler’s workshops — is called rigato. It involves the engraving of a precious metal with a series of parallel lines to achieve a fabric-like effect.
Rigato is on luminous display in the house’s Macri collection of earrings, cuff bracelets and other accessories. A painstaking attention to detail is pronounced in the celebrated Macri, Bartolomeo and Unica collections — witness the striking honeycomb motif, a house signature, that characterizes the Unica collection’s Caterina bracelet, for example.
The Macri collection was the work of Mario’s son, Gianmaria Buccellati, an award-winning jeweler and internationally renowned silversmith who worked to bring the brand to the global stage by overseeing the opening of boutiques in Tokyo, Paris, California and elsewhere.
In 1951, Mario opened his first store in New York City; today the company operates boutiques worldwide. In 2019, the company celebrated its centennial with a new flagship in Paris and the Vintage collection, which features some of its most enduring designs.
On 1stDibs, find a collection of authentic Buccellati jewelry, including earrings, necklaces, rings and other accessories.
Finding the Right earrings for You
In the United States, ear piercing didn’t really become popular until the 1950s and ‘60s, but our desire for a dazzling pair of vintage earrings has deeper roots than that. In fact, wearing earrings actually goes back thousands of years, and you can find many tangible connections between now and then in how we continue to talk about these treasured accessories.
Women wore ornamental earrings — studs and hoops at the very least — in Ancient Egypt, which is home to mines that are among the earliest sources of emeralds in the world. Emerald earrings are highly prized today, and their quality lies in their rich, saturated color. The highest-quality emeralds are green or bluish-green. Earrings worn by the affluent in early Roman civilizations were set with precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and a clean-looking pop of pearl on the front of the lobe is as timeless as ever. Hoop earrings are imbued with symbolism and cultural significance for many, and on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.
Today, ear piercing is very popular all over the world, and, as a result, it is difficult to overstate how much everyone pines for a good pair of earrings — modernist drop earrings, glamorous Victorian hoops, geometrically complex chandelier earrings, you name it. Sure, jewelry trends and the fashion darlings of social media come and go, but earrings have a staying power that seems impenetrable: The still-strong love affair between British royals and Cartier earrings is more than a century old, glossy 1970s hoops from legacy houses such as Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the statement makers they’ve always been and although people have been stacking earrings for many moons, the allure of an expertly mismatched stack of charms and studs still feels fresh and new.
While there is no shortage of modern earring designs to choose from, the classics, like coral earrings, Art Deco–style earrings and diamond drop earrings are still heavy hitters. On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique, new and vintage earrings today.