Bulgari Serpenti Necklace

BVLGARI's Serpenti collection, which includes the Serpenti necklace, the Serpenti bracelet, Serpenti earrings, the Serpenti watch and more, remains one of the Italian fine-jewelry house’s most recognizable to date. And as they've been widely revered by style icons for decades, these snake jewels show no sign of slithering out of the spotlight.

Contemporary BVLGARI Serpenti diamond snake necklaces and bracelets have made many appearances on the red carpet, adorning the necks and arms of Julianne Moore, Bella Hadid, Zoë Kravitz and Charlize Theron, to name just a few enthusiasts. Naomi Watts is even fine with donning one BVLGARI serpent to multiple events. In 2015, when she was on the awards season circuit, she wore the same diamond snake necklace on several red carpets. 

The collection’s snake motif — initially a tribute to Roman- and Hellenistic-era jewelry — quickly became an emblem of the brand, which was founded in 1884 by silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris (1857–1932). When he died, his sons Giorgio and Constantino took over the family business and designed a collection of wristwatches, all bearing a serpent, the mythological representation of time. Over the years, the Serpenti collection has shown off the brand’s envelope-pushing styles.

The first snake jewels emerge in the BVLGARI archives in the 1940s: coiled gold Tubogas bracelets representing the body, with a watch for the head. Initially, the house collaborated on the timepieces with Swiss companies like Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

BVLGARI began making bold coiled gold bracelets with gem-encrusted snake heads and tails like the one Elizabeth Taylor sported around 1950. She was a BVLGARI devotee, and when photos of the actress donning the celebrated jewel began to dominate the tabloids, the collection took off. 

Find BVLGARI Serpenti necklaces and other BVLGARI necklaces, bracelets and earrings on 1stDibs.

Greek silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris arrived in Rome in 1881 and set up his own shop there in 1884, calling it Bulgari, an Italianization of his last name (in the brand's logo, it's styled BVLGARI, using the classical Latin alphabet in a nod to ancient Roman culture). In 1905, he opened the company’s flagship boutique on Rome’s Via dei Condotti. Since then, Bulgari has looked to Rome as a source of reference for its fanciful and decidedly romantic designs for necklaces, bracelets, earrings and other accessories.

Although the iconic jewelry house found success with its silverwork and Art Deco designs, popular through the 1920s, Bulgari’s signature style — bold, often using yellow gold embellished with big colorful gemstones — began to emerge when Sotirios’s sons inherited the business, in 1932.

The brand truly hit its stride in the dolce vita era of the 1950s and ’60s, when the founder’s grandsons Paolo, Gianni and Nicola Bulgari decisively departed from demure traditional styles to develop the house’s exuberant multi-gem looks, attracting celebrity collectors like Elizabeth Taylor.

In the 1940s, Bulgari debuted perhaps its most famous design, the Serpenti bracelet watch. The piece’s snakelike coils were made possible by the tubogas jewelry technique, which links a flexible series of thin horizontal bands. Both the sleek, modern tubogas construction and the sinuous snake motif continue to be synonymous with the Bulgari brand. 

On 1stDibs, the collection of vintage Bulgari jewelry includes rings, pendant necklaces, watches and other accessories.

We are fortunate to know much of the world’s long and dazzling history of necklaces, as this type of jewelry was so treasured that it was frequently buried with its owners.

Lapis lazuli beads adorned necklaces unearthed from the royal graves at the ancient Iraqi civilization of Sumer, while the excavation of King Tut’s burial chamber revealed a sense of style that led to a frenzy of Art Deco designs, with artisans of the 1920s seeking to emulate the elegant work crafted by Ancient Egypt’s goldsmiths and jewelry makers. 

In ancient times, pendant necklaces worn by royalty and nobles conferred wealth and prestige. Today, wearing jewelry is about personal expression: Luxury diamond necklaces exude confidence and can symbolize the celebratory nature of a deep romantic relationship, while paper-clip chain-link necklaces designed by the likes of goldsmith Faye Kim are firmly planted in the past as well as the present. Kim works exclusively with eco-friendly gold, and these fashionable, fun accessories owe to the design of 19th-century watch fobs. 

For some, necklaces are thought of as being a solely feminine piece, but this widely loved accessory has been gender-neutral for eons. In fact, just as women rarely took to wearing a single necklace during the Renaissance, men of the era layered chains and valuable pendants atop their bejeweled clothing. In modern times, the free-spirited hippie and counterculture movements of the 1960s saw costume-jewelry designers celebrating self-expression through colorful multistrand necklaces and no shortage of beads, which were worn by anyone and everyone. 

Even after all of these years, the necklace remains an irrefutable staple of any complete outfit. Although new trends in jewelry are constantly emerging, the glamour and beauty of the past continue to inform modern styles and designs. In a way, the cyclical history of the necklace differs little from its familiar looped form: The celebrated French jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels found much inspiration in King Tut, and, now, their Alhambra collection is a go-to for modern royals. Vintage necklaces designed by David Webb — whose work landed him on the cover of Vogue in 1950, two years after opening his Manhattan shop — were likely inspired by the ornamental styles of ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and Egypt. 

On 1stDibs, browse top designers like Cartier, Tiffany & Co. and Bulgari, or shop by your favorite style, from eye-catching choker necklaces to understated links to pearl necklaces and more.