“Jewels of the Dolce Vita - Christie's” plus 2 more

Jewels of the Dolce Vita - Christie's
Valentine's Day Jewelry Gift Guide - W Magazine
Sharon Boccelli & Company Auction - Maine Antique Digest

Posted: 24 Apr 2017 12:00 AM PDT

Exuberant, colourful Italian jewellery design from the 1960s is back in high fashion — and, as Meredith Etherington-Smith reports, the Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale includes pieces with important and glamorous provenance

If Paris was the capital of fashion and culture in the Art Deco era of the 1920s and 1930s, Rome succeeded it as Europe's most exciting, stylish and decadent city in the 1950s and 1960s. The Cinecittà Studios — known as 'Hollywood on the Tiber' — attracted international stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to its sound stages, and when the cameras stopped rolling they joined fellow luminaries Brigitte Bardot, Jayne Mansfield and Raquel Welch in the Café de Paris on the Via Veneto or at all-night parties at the Grand Hotel.

This demi-monde was famously chronicled in Federico Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita, starring Marcello Mastroianni as a reporter for a gossip magazine who is followed everywhere by his photographer, Paparazzo (after whom paparazzi were named). Mastroianni's character is tasked with tailing the idols of the era as they are chauffeur-driven from nightlife hotspots to grand villas. The movie captured Rome in its full glory, at a time when it was a magnet for the most glittering array of people on the planet.

Baron Enrico di Portanova, grandson of the American magnate and philanthropist Hugh Roy Cullen, was among them. A flamboyant character, he was born in the United States but raised in Italy — and known as 'Ricky' to his many friends in the global playgrounds of the rich and famous.

In 1961, the Baron headed to Houston in order to claim his share of the inheritance from the vast Cullen oil fortune. At the time, he owned a small jewellery boutique at the foot of the Spanish Steps, started with sapphires he had bought on a trip to Ceylon. When times were tough, as they frequently were in the early days, he occasionally posed for photo-romance magazines as a moustachioed hero.

Later, after having returned to Houston, Enrico would build Arabesque, a legendary house tumbling down a steep hill to a private beach in Acapulco. The spectacular villa, which boasted 35 bedrooms and 26 bathrooms, was used as a location for the James Bond movie License to Kill, and hosted many of the most famous and important figures of the time.

The necklace above was commissioned by Baron Enrico di Portanova in 1972 as a gift for Sandra Hovas, the year before the glamorous Texan became his second wife. It was made by Massoni, which was founded in Rome in 1790 and became suppliers to Italian royalty, the aristocracy and, in the 1960s, a wide range of well-known Italian and international personalities.

The bracelet shown below is by Marina B, who hails from the world famous Bulgari family, and created pieces for the firm until the mid-1970s. In 1978, after the death of her father, Marina started her own eponymous brand, based in Geneva. Almost immediately, her designs attracted a following led by Sophia Loren, and the jet-setters of St. Tropez, Ibiza, Capri, Monte Carlo, and St Barts.

Silvana Mangano was an Italian screen siren of the dolce vita era. Born in Rome in 1930, she trained as a dancer and won the 'Miss Rome' title at the age of 16, which led her to her first film role. In 1949 she married producer Dino De Laurentiis, who is credited with bringing Italian cinema to an international audience, and collaborated with Carlo Ponti on the Fellini classics La Strada and Nights of Cabiria.

Between 1945 and 1987 Mangano starred in 38 movies, often opposite the greatest leading men of the time, including Vittorio Gassman, Alberto Sordi, Edoardo De Filippo, Jacques Sernas, Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. During the golden age of Italian cinema, she worked with many of the most sought-after directors — Mario Monicelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Luchino Visconti, among them — and won three David di Donatello and three Nastro D'Argento awards.

The signed Bulgari pendant above, set with cabochon smokey quartz, onyx panels and diamond accents, was given to Mangano by De Laurentiis, and is typical of the bold jewels of the dolce vita, as are the ruby, sapphire and diamond 'serpenti' watch-bracelets (below), also by Bulgari. The actress wore the piece in Luchino Visconti's 1974 movie Conversation Piece (Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno).

Bulgari was founded in Rome in 1884 by Sotirio Bulgari, but it was his sons Giorgio and Costantino, who took over the business in 1932, who are credited with creating the highly distinctive 'Bulgari Italian style'. With its daring colour combinations, sumptuous volume and experimentation with unconventional materials, it was a look that became symbolic of the decadence and romance of 1960s Rome.

Nino Manfredi was an influential Italian actor, director, screenwriter and star of the Italian comedy films known as Commedia all' Italiana. During his 54-year career he worked with directors such as Ettore Scola and Vittorio de Sica, and won numerous awards, including the Nastro d'Argento, which named one of its prizes after him.

Manfredi met his wife Erminia in 1955, and asked for her hand in marriage after just a week. A former fashion model, Erminia became her husband's professional partner in many of his theatrical plays, and the necklace above was one of her most prized possessions. The couple remained together for 49 years until Manfredi's death in 2004. A street in Rome is named after him.

If the contemporary extravagances of Dolce & Gabbana and the acclaim for the newly revitalised Gucci are a reaction to the monochrome minimalism that has ruled fashion for more than a decade, the revival of interest in Italian jewellery from the 1960s is surely a part of this welcome trend. The dolce vita, it seems, is alive and very well indeed.

Valentine's Day Jewelry Gift Guide - W Magazine

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 12:00 AM PST

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Sharon Boccelli & Company Auction - Maine Antique Digest

Posted: 16 Mar 2017 02:07 AM PDT

Sharon Boccelli & Company Auction | Maine Antique Digest

AUCTION: Sunday March 6th, 2016
Time: 11 AM

Preview:
Week of Sale 10-4; day of sale 9 to 10:45; or call 802-460-1190.
Extreme weather call.

Place: S.B. & Co Auctioneers
46 Canal St., Bellows Falls, VT 05101

Jewelry: sev. lots of 14 & 18 kt. gold jewelry including brooch pins, bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces, pendants, pocket watches, charms, some with diamonds and stones, 14 kt. gold equestrian, dinosaur, 14kt. gold Rolls-Royce Key, Cartier, Georg Jensen, Art Nouveau, Cameos, Severin Wunderman pocket watches, watch fobs, 18 kt. gold H.R. Ekegren, Victorian, sterling silver brooch pins, Shreve Crump & Low 14 kt. & Sterling box, Mexican sterling, Oriental silver & gold, mens cuff links, tuxedo sets.

Furniture: Period Pembroke table, Duncan Phyfe sofa, Federal flip-top card table, Sheraton flip-top card table, lift-top sewing table, drop-leaf sewing table, Gothic-style birdcage, candlestand, tip-top tables, chests, chairs, still itemizing.

Silver: serving pcs., trays, plates, Francis the 1st Reed & Barton service for 12, Early hallmarked chamber stick, S. Kirk & Sons, repoussé bowl, thread holder, compacts, sugar & creamers, Tiffany & Company tea set, Tiffany servers, Abalone & Silver Fish, Georg Jensen, J.E. Caldwell, horn vases, pierced bowls, scalloped bowls, Arthur Stone small bowl, sev. Partial flatware services, Dutch silver.

Textiles and Bags: Important Early Victorian clothing, several outfits, whites, Clothing and scarves by Gucci, Chanel, sev. scarves & belts by Hermès, Kolmer Olin clutch, Cartier Leather jewelry case, and sev. others, Louis Vuitton travel Americas cup, Several bags and purses by Gucci, Hermès, Cartier, Hermès Birken 50 Man's Travel Bag, Louis Vuitton Antique Trunk, Antique Chinese embroidered robe, Peter Max belts, Kathrine Baumann Lip purse, 2 Betty Boops, and sev. compacts.

Miscellaneous: Double Crusie lamp, Tobacco holders, 1721 Stock Certificate from South Seas Company, 1868 campaign button U.S. Grant, travel clocks, Tim Cotterill frogmen, Tibetan singing bowls, Porcelain & glass Samovar, Native American baskets, bronze box H.R.H. Augustus Frederick, pins, Tiffany sunglasses, temple carving, opera glasses, International exhibition medals, tin Green River whiskey sign, Tiffany Studios Desk Set, Original 1938 Celluloid "Ferdinand the Bull," D. Mason & Sons Leather trunk, Jewelry boxes, jade items.

Glass: Lalique sparrow and nude, Josh Simpson paperweight, globes, Libbey, Thomas Webb, St. Louis, Waterford

Porcelain & Pottery: Herend vase, Arts & Crafts pottery, English miniatures, Porcelain ptd. plaque Augesta Shelley, Bavarian, Meissen, Royal Worcester, Rosenthal "Bettina Elegance" gold coins.

Artwork: 16-century ptgs. on vellum, H.W. Hannau gelatin prints, C. H. Turner etchings, 2 oils by Sarah B. Holden, Oil portrait of a young woman, sev. Dennis Sheehan oils, Gary Sheppard watercolor, 2 watercolors by P.M. Colyar, Oriental ptg. on silk, Thomas Moran "White Squadron," 1712 Richard Steele, Engravings by Moran, "House of Washington" by Thomas Oldham Barlow, James Fincken, Washington family by Hoffy, 1817 map of Paris, 1562 map of Russia, broadsides, Corday Print, Paul Hamilton oil, Florence White still life, B.J. Dowd oil, Victor Vasarely Screenprint, Le Bonheur Sonnet, Roy Lewando, Al Hirshfeld, "Snow Drop" by Thornton, Hovsep Pushman Lithographs, Haitian oil, E. Nunni Arts & Crafts oil.

Complete catalog and photos on our website at www.sbauctioneers.com

TERMS: 15% buyer's premium, 18% on line premium. We accept cash, check, MasterCard, Visa only. Subject to errors and omissions. Auction license VT# 2437 and MA# 365

We are just a short ride away.
Bellows Falls is at exit 5 on 91 from the south and exit 6 on 91 from the north.
From Boston and west area take Rt 2 west to 140 north, to 12 north and cross over the river into VT at Rt 123, follow signs to downtown Bellows Falls.
Plenty of free parking, Visit the Windham Antiques Center on Main St. while in town.