Baroque Pearl & Vermeil single strand necklace

Cameos have a very important place in Italian history, culture and lifestyle.  The art of Cameo-making, called Glittica, is one of the most ancient arts of humanity and an art that has had its golden moments in Italy over the centuries.

During the Roman Empire, for example, Cameos served to emphasize one’s social status, while in Florentine Renaissance and the Neoclassicism period, the Cameo was an object of desire, and a MUST-HAVE for privileged tourists during the Grand Tour of Italy.

Baroque pearls were highly prized by Renaissance jewelers, who saw them not as misshapen products of sea mollusks but rather as unique and exquisite natural forms. They were often used in pieces of jewelry to form the bodies of figures. A superb example is a piece from the 16th century known as the "Canning Jewel" (located at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London), in which a large baroque pearl is used for the torso of a sea figure having the body of a man and the tail of a fish, the whole mounted in enameled gold set with pearls, rubies, and diamonds.