Italian Designer Jewelry History
In many of the works by classical Italian jewelry designers, you see traces of Egyptian, Greek and Asian culture. How the combination of these cultures impacted the development of designs, is easy to see from the discoveries of jewelry made during the ancient Etruscan period in southern Italy. From the 9th to 4th centuries B.C., these early Italian jewelry designers, whose gold jewelry designs have never been equaled in beauty, cheap fashion jewelry perfected the techniques that are still in use in making Italian designer jewelry today. A prime example of the value jewelers place on their craft is seen in the life of one of the best known 19th century Italian jewelry designers, Pio Fortuna Castellani.
