Takat Emerald

Driven by a passion for rare and beautiful diamonds and precious gemstones, the family-run jewelry firm TAKAT has established a reputation for timeless, distinctive and innovative pieces.

TAKAT was founded in 1955 by Haji Nisar Ahmed Takat, whose family history of jewelry-making stretches back to the historical city of Jaipur, India. He was inspired by his family’s legacy to open his first business in Jaipur, focusing on cutting and polishing precious stones. After his sons, Siraj and Rafeeq, joined in 1976, the company began trading gems.

Almost 20 years later, in 1994, Siraj and Rafeeq introduced TAKAT to the global jewelry market and opened an office in Bangkok. In 2000, the company expanded further with Takat’s grandsons, Rayaz and Irfan, joining the firm and establishing offices in New York and Hong Kong.

Today, TAKAT continues to specialize in designing and creating exquisite jewelry with daring and unique combinations of colorless and colored diamonds, gemstones and precious metals. Pieces such as drop earrings and bangles feature dazzling arrays of Gemological Institute of America (GIA)- and GemResearch Swisslab AG (GRS)-certified sapphires, diamonds and Burmese pigeon blood rubies set in 18-karat white gold.

TAKAT’s fine jewelry and gemstones have been featured in numerous major trade shows and fairs around the world, including in New York, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dubai, Paris and Milan. Such celebrities as Mayim Bialik, Lily Collins, Joan Rivers and Ali Landry have worn TAKAT pieces to red-carpet events.

On 1stDibs, find a range of contemporary TAKAT earrings, bracelets, rings and more.

Rooted in centuries of history of adornment dating back to the ancient world, modern jewelry reimagines traditional techniques, forms and materials for expressive new pieces. As opposed to contemporary jewelry, which responds to the moment in which it was created, modern jewelry often describes designs from the 20th to 21st centuries that reflect movements and trends in visual culture.

Modern jewelry emerged from the 19th-century shift away from jewelry indicating rank or social status. The Industrial Revolution allowed machine-made jewelry using electric gold plating, metal alloys and imitation stones, making beautiful jewelry widely accessible. Although mass production deemphasized the materials of the jewelry, the vision of the designer remained important, something that would be furthered in the 1960s with what’s known as the “critique of preciousness.”

A design fair called the “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” brought global attention to the Art Deco style in 1925 and gathered a mix of jewelry artists alongside master jewelers like Van Cleef & Arpels, Mauboussin and Boucheron. Art Deco designs from Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels unconventionally mixed gemstones like placing rock crystals next to diamonds while borrowing motifs from eclectic sources including Asian lacquer and Persian carpets. Among Cartier’s foremost design preoccupations at the time were high-contrast color combinations and crisp, geometric forms and patterns. In the early 20th century, modernist jewelers like Margaret De Patta and artists such as Alexander Calder — who is better known for his kinetic sculptures than his provocative jewelry — explored sculptural metalwork in which geometric shapes and lines were preferred over elaborate ornamentation.

Many of the innovations in modern jewelry were propelled by women designers such as Wendy Ramshaw, who used paper to craft her accessories in the 1960s. During the 1970s, Elsa Peretti created day-to-night pieces for Tiffany & Co. while designers like Lea Stein experimented with layering plastic, a material that had been employed in jewelry since the mid-19th century and had expanded into Bakelite, acrylics and other unique materials.

Find a collection of modern watches, bracelets, engagement rings, necklaces, earrings and other jewelry on 1stDibs.