Buccellati Silver Bear

A love of tradition set Mario Buccellati and his fine jewelry house apart in the competitive Italian market and remains a point of pride for the family.

In 1919, Mario launched Buccellati 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 rings, earrings, bracelets and other accessories were exquisite, yet the gemstones themselves were never too flashy, elevated instead by the designs’ intricate metalsmithing.

Today the Buccellati family 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 Mario Buccellati jewelry today.

Antique, vintage and new decorative boxes will safely store items while adding a splash of color or texture to a corner in any room. They have had a range of purposes over the years — from trinkets to serving as useful receptacles, such as snuff boxes, jewelry boxes and more. Boxes have also been designed in a range of forms and styles.

Box making is a craft dating back thousands of years. Early boxes as decorative objects were regularly designed and decorated both inside and out, ranging from minimal looks to more flashy styles. Decorative boxes have been constructed from different materials, with wood and metal being the most common. Wood is widely available and versatile, with woodworkers able to carve complex designs or showcase its natural grain.

Some antique jewelry boxes were made with tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, ivory and even porcupine quills, such as those created by the Anishinabe in Canada and the United States. In Sri Lanka, well-crafted boxes were inlaid with porcupine quills and ivory discs between ebony bands. Chinese sewing boxes and tea boxes made of black lacquer were popular in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These often featured gold-painted designs or landscape scenes. Silk, paper and velvet frequently enhanced these boxes’ interiors.

Any style of decorative box can be a nice tabletop or desktop decor, whether to hold candy or tea in the living room or paper, pencils and other business supplies in the office. They can also act as jewelry boxes. Sewing boxes can be a lovely touch to any space while storing magazines or other trinkets.

You can find metal, wood and silver antique boxes on 1stDibs. The collection includes mid-century modern, Victorian and Art Deco styles that can add elegance to any home.