Italy occupies an unusual dual position in the gem and jewellery world. As a producer of rough gem material it is minor, with a handful of historically important deposits and very little contemporary mining. As a manufacturer of finished goods it is, by tonnage of gold worked, one of the largest in the world, and the Italian chain, hollow-rope and stamped-jewellery industries set the global benchmark for that segment of the trade.

Domestic gem and ornamental material

The Mediterranean Sea off the coasts of Sardinia, Sicily and Campania produces Corallium rubrum, the precious red coral that has been worked at Torre del Greco near Naples since at least the seventeenth century. Torre del Greco remains the centre of the world coral-cutting trade, with the local Istituto Statale d'Arte specialising in coral and cameo carving. Sulphur from Sicily produced large transparent crystals during the nineteenth-century mining era and Sicilian sulphur is still encountered as a collector's specimen, occasionally faceted. Vesuvianite (also called idocrase) takes its name from Mount Vesuvius and was first described from the Somma volcanic complex. Alpine localities in the Val d'Ossola and Val d'Aosta yield demantoid, andradite, smoky quartz and the rare manganotantalite. The marble of Carrara, while not a gem, has carried Italian decorative-stone work for two millennia.

Manufacturing districts

The Italian goldsmithing industry is concentrated in three districts. Arezzo in Tuscany is the chain capital, home to UnoAErre, Chimento and a long tail of smaller chain houses; the Arezzo trade fair Oroarezzo runs each spring. Vicenza in the Veneto specialises in stamped, cast and findings work and hosts Vicenzaoro, the principal European jewellery trade fair, three times a year. Valenza in Piedmont concentrates on high-end coloured-stone goldsmithing and is the home of Bvlgari's manufacturing, Damiani and Pasquale Bruni. The three districts together account for the bulk of the gold imported into Italy, and their combined output is exported worldwide; Italian chain in particular dominates the wholesale market in North America and the Gulf.

Trade institutions

The umbrella body Federorafi groups the principal manufacturer associations. The Italian titolo system (see separate entry) governs domestic fineness marking, and Italian gold is generally produced to 750, 585 or 375 millesimal fineness for export. CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, maintains its secretariat in Italy and the country is active in the negotiation of European nomenclature.

Historical context

Italian goldsmithing tradition runs continuously from Etruscan granulation through the Roman period, the Byzantine and medieval workshops of Venice and the Renaissance courts. The granulation technique reconstructed by Castellani in the nineteenth century and refined by Giuliano shaped the European archaeological-revival style. In the twentieth century, Bvlgari and Buccellati extended the Italian high-jewellery line into the international luxury market.