Magnetic, shining, irresistible. Jewellery, a precious and brilliant ornament, has always held a seductive allure for women and men alike. It is no coincidence, in fact, that it is precisely the latter who are the biggest collectors. The jewel is not only a precious stone that evokes passion and tenderness, but also the work of the jeweller, the goldsmith and finally a symbol of the person who owns it.
The Toi et Moi ring with a 5.10-carat ground sapphire set against a 2.50-carat diamond both in the shape of a drop surrounded by baguette-cut diamonds (lot 159, estimate €220,000 – €300,000), is the work of the great Bulgari goldsmith, a name that alone has evoked grace and wealth for 139 years. It was Sotirio Bulgari, who came to Rome from Greece, who opened the first shop on Via Sistina in 1884, before moving to its current location at Via Condotti 10 in 1905. It is difficult to list the personalities who have passed through here: aristocrats, upper middle class people, film stars such as Gina Lollobrigida, Sofia Loren, Ingrid Bergam and Anna Magnani who, in her simplicity, was a tireless collector of Bulgari jewellery that she wore with natural ease. As Alvar Gonzáles-Palacios writes in the book celebrating the maison’s 125th anniversary: “Bulgari has created extraordinary jewellery by combining rare stones and unusual, inexpensive materials such as silk and leather, bringing to excellence certain precepts of Chanel when the great couturière covered women in costume jewellery… She has treated precious things with the same ease with which one uses disparate materials”.
The gold ring with a central 10.72-carat octagonal Colombian emerald surrounded by brilliant-cut and marquise diamonds (lot 122, estimate 30,000 – 40. 000) is of rare elegance as is a necklace with pendant in platinum, emeralds, onyx and diamonds from the late 1920s, made with a chain of 85 old-cut diamonds supporting an arch-shaped pendant in onyx and old-cut diamonds supporting a geometric shield in old-cut diamonds and squares, from which fringes with geometric motifs in old-cut diamonds and pentagonal, hexagonal and marquise diamonds descend, each ending in a drop of cabochon emeralds (lot 120, estimate Euro 24,000 – 30,000).
