Buccellati presents an iconic object from its creative history: the Magnolia brooch, which has always been of great charm and success, especially in Eastern countries. Floral brooches have in fact always been an integral part of the Maison’s creative process since the beginning, demonstrating that Nature is a source of great inspiration for all generations of Buccellati designers.
The Magnolia brooch, originally in yellow gold, made its debut in the Buccellati jewelry range during the 1980s, when Gianmaria designed a Magnolia set among the creations intended for the famous Wako mall in Tokyo, Japan. It was such a success that, in the 1990s, Gianmaria introduced a new design of this flower, with white gold petals and yellow gold pistils, and used it to create matching brooches and earrings.
Starting in 2002, the brooch was further embellished with the addition of diamonds on the central pistils of the flower, and in 2004, variations were created in white or yellow gold with a central pearl or precious stones. After the Magnolia, the series was enriched with new brooches with a floral design: from the carnation, the lotus and the frangipani, through the sunflower and the narcissus, to the more delicate anemone and clematis, all made with the “rigato” and “segrinato” engraving techniques and embellished with diamonds, pearls and colored stones.
The common thread that links the Magnolia brooches, from the oldest to those in production today, is the “segrinato” engraving, which gives the petals a softer texture. It is obtained strictly by hand, engraving overlapping lines in different directions with a burin, not preordained, so that the petals seem real, soft, moved by the wind. Since the 1930s and 1940s, the “segrinato” technique was mainly used on silver objects, such as boxes and vases. In the following twenty years, however, this type of engraving reached its maximum value in goldsmith objects, as it was considered ideal for giving movement to leaves, flowers and fruits that made up bracelets or brooches, thus giving a highly realistic rendering of the natural world.
Recently acquired, the rare yellow gold leaf bracelet, designed by Mario Buccellati and handmade in the 1950s, represents the pinnacle of the development of this technique. It was precisely in this period that the founder of the Maison further enhanced the refined engraving techniques and captured the potential of the “segrinato” to best render the surface of natural elements, such as leaves. A series of documents found in the Archive, including a clipping from a famous American newspaper, celebrates this intuition, INFO@BUCCELLATI.COM underlining the “opaque” effect of the “segrinato” and the uniqueness of this “handmade in Italy” bracelet, today admirable in the historic Buccellati collection. Thanks to the collaboration of two generations of artisans, and their expert hands, the creation has returned to shine. The restoration work was also a precious point of comparison between them, who shared impressions and feelings, to revive the ancient technique of the “segrinato”, preserved and transmitted even today to future generations of artisans. Even today it is a technique that the Maison uses for various details and that is diligently passed down by the artisans from father to son, in a passage of knowledge and skill, essential to maintaining excellence.
Buccellati’s Magnolia brooch is a testament to the timelessness of the Maison’s designs and demonstrates how the beauty of objects created in the past – when true and objective – can endure undaunted and fascinate generations for an entire century and beyond.
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