Hidden Gems
Italy’s Piedmont region is home to some of the world’s finest jewellery makers. TAMA LUNG gets an exclusive look inside a handful of its little-known but longestablished family-run businesses
San Salvatore Monferrato has all the hallmarks of a quintessential Italian town: a charming central palazzo, centuries-old cathedrals, brightly painted buildings with red-tile roofs and a restored hilltop tower used for military defence in the 1400s. And just a few blocks from the town centre, behind two high-security glass doors in an otherwise residential neighbourhood, a buzzing family jewellery business. Giovanni Ferraris is in fact one of dozens of often generations-old jewellery businesses that carry on their trade in the Valenza district of Italy’s northwest Piedmont region. Each year about 30 tonnes of gold and 80 percent of the precious stones that are imported to Italy are processed here, with some €2 billion worth of jewellery products exported in 2017 alone. Despite the presence of major brands such as Bulgari and Damiani, the bulk of the jewellery produced here is handmanufactured by highly skilled artisans whose heritage dates back almost 200 years.
According to local lore, a goldsmith by the name of Francesco Caramora was the first to set up a workshop on the border of Piedmont and Lombardy. He’s remembered for creating a Maltese pendant for a local businessman’s wife in 1825, two years before his premature death. Caramora’s protégé went on to run the business and joined forces with two other local families to grow and lead the local jewellery industry.
Over the ensuing years, the Italian government and economy would go through several cycles of boom and bust. It wasn’t until the early
1950s – after emerging from a wartime ban on buying and selling platinum, gold, silver, pearls and all other precious stones and metals – that Valenza would make its mark on the world stage.
“The beautiful jewellery and gold crafted in Valenza is a cornerstone of Piedmont’s craft industry and is appreciated worldwide for the quality of the materials used, and the skills of the jewellers who make it,” wrote Mercedes Bresso, a member of the European Parliament and former president of the Piedmont Regional Government, in a foreword to a 2010 exhibition of historic pieces from the region in Paris.
“Although Providence in the United States, Toledo and Barcelona in Spain, and Pforzheim in Germany, among others, are known for their
well-crafted jewellery and gold, the workshops in Valenza’s jewellery district have also produced exclusive pieces made by hand using highly sophisticated techniques that are genuine works of art.”
After showing us hand-drawn sketches of a new collection of rings featuring swirling layers of gold and diamonds, company founder Giovanni Ferraris escorts us to a workshop where a few dozen men and women usher each piece through the production process, from mould to casting to polishing and gem-setting.
A single item requires an incredible range of expertise to reach its finished state, whether creating 3D models on a computer screen or selecting the perfect stones to sit in sometimes microscopic settings. Ferraris himself worked as an apprentice for several years before completing a degree in jewellery design and establishing his company at just 21 years of age.
He began by specialising in the highly technical craft of producing jewellery watches, and eventually expanded to all types of jewellery with wife Katia as supervisor of designs. Today their children are also involved in the business, helping distil what Ferraris calls “a concentrate of Italian spirit” in every piece that comes out of their workshop.
“The most important thing is the people who work with us; each piece is infused with their soul,” he says as we leave the Ferraris workshop. “Some of them have been with us for 25 years. They’re like family.”
Not far away, the Barberis family continues the legacy of their company namesake Carlo Barberis, who trained as a goldsmith before opening his own workshop in 1929. He joined forces with his wife Valeria in 1940, welcoming clients into their home and earning a reputation for creative, colourful designs. Now the company is helmed by Barberis’s grandchildren, with four siblings working to showcase its designs around the world.
Valentina Callagher manages the business founded by her father, a gemsetter, in 1976. “Many brands from around the world come to Valenza to use the infrastructure and know-how we have here,” she says. “It’s very important to keep these traditional methods alive, and to pass them on from generation to generation.”
Indeed, whether old or new, most companies in Valenza are a family affair. Husband-and-wife duo Arturo Bonaventi and Elisa Annaratone set up Annaratone Jewelry in 2014 to produce tailor-made collections made using modern technologies and sustainable materials. They are the brains behind EAlite synthetic gems, which are created in a laboratory before being hand-cut in the same way as a natural crystal. “It’s still very unusual to use lab-created stones,” Bonaventi says. “Some jewellers use ethical stones, but this is better because we can create something beautiful without harming the Earth.”
Luciano Tinelli, who owns a small watch shop in Valenza, also works with his wife to produce exquisitely handcrafted jewels inspired by art deco and art nouveau designs as well as award-winning jewellery watches. Bright Jewels, also based in Valenza, dates back to 1955 and specialises in hand-made classic pieces as well as innovative flexible spring bracelets set with diamonds and precious stones.
And we meet the son of 74-year-old Gabriella Rivalta, who is known for her unique, hand-painted enamel charms with floral and other nature-inspired themes. Rivalta can even create a personalised pendant of a client’s four-legged friend.
In addition to original designs and jewellery production, Valenza has also become a popular and trusted source for jewellery parts and fastenings. Deambrogio Fratelli specialises in clasps and closures, often set with diamonds or other precious stones. The 60-year-old family business is one of only two or three companies in Italy that produce clasps, which require considerable expertise to achieve the correct weight and proportions to pair with pearls and other beaded items.
“In Valenza, the word ‘tradition’ does not refer to an unchanging, unchangeable series of rules handed down from generation to generation,” explains Lia Lenti, a Valenza native and jewellery expert. “Its tradition is built on a cosmopolitan body of knowledge in constant flux, which continues to find its raison d’être by reconciling the work of highly skilled craftsmen with state-of-the-art technology. A local treasure in a global world.”
“The most important thing is the people who work with us; each piece is infused with their soul” — Giovanni Ferraris