BeSPOKE 07

By SARA noSEdA
The treasures
of Venice
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CodognAto, A TRADITION
BORN IN 1866.
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Imagine the rich and prosperous Venice at the
end of the sixteenth century, a city in tumult with
gold and spice merchants and Tintoretto painting
illuminated views of the Ducal Palace. A fleet of
pirates attacking the city and sacking the villas of
the Venetian nobility and taking possession of the
precious treasures passed on from family to family.
Rooms decorated with diamonds and jaquard fabrics
and silks, set tables, luxuries and court secrets.
Paintings in brass frames, ink horns and pens abandoned
by the side of a human skull on a wooden
desk and Hamlet written on parchment. This is the
mood which has characterised more than two generations
of the Codognato name, a sophisticated
jeweller’s dating to 1866 close to Piazza San Marco,
between the Hermès and Chanel boutiques. The
Codognato family made its name creating jewellery
at the beginning of the nineteenth century
with Simeone Codognato, a great connoisseur
of antiques and Etruscan and Byzantine art. And
it was precisely in this panorama of gold, extravagance
and diamonds that he and later his son Attilio,
still at the head of the company, presents its
collection of precious jewellery. Serpents winding
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over fingers with rubies instead of eyes and crawling
out of the eye sockets of great gold skulls. Rings,
bracelets, cameos, crowns covered with precious
stones and symbols of death in the midst of crows,
birds of prey, owls and crocodiles recovered from
nineteenth century Romantic paintings. It seems
to be reminding us that death is inevitable, imminent,
a sort of symbol of carpe diem, an invitation
to enjoy life and live each day as if it was our last.
A taste for the Renaissance but also for Romantic
themes, Baroque forms, the recovery of Byzantine
gold and ancient Etruscan art and then there is
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the atmosphere of pirates treasures which remain
alive in the legends of doomed sailing ships. And all
this for more than one hundred years in the same
boutique, a building in wood with its sign painted
above an arch in old style, a symbol of Venice for
more than a century. The shop is still frequented
by famous personalities such as Sergei Diaghilev,
Elton John, and Carine Roitfeld. Once you cross the
threshold you will feel as if you had walked into an
original Wunderkammer. And you, what souvenir
will you buy next time you visit Venice? A gondolier’s
hat or a golden serpent by Codognato?
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1. GOLD BANGLE WITH
ENGRAVED AND CHISELED
SNAKE MOTIF, DIAMONDS
AND RUBIES.
2. A VANITy RING WHICH MANy
OTHER DESIGNERS ALL AROUND
THE WORLD HAVE BEEN
INSPIRED By.
3. A VANITy RING IN CORAL
AND GOLD.
4. GOLD PLATED
AND DIAMOND EARRINGS
IN THE FORM OF TWO SKULLS.
5. GRANDE BROCHE MORETTO
IN GOLD WITH ANTIQUE
CAMEOS.
6. VIRTUOSO MORETTO
VENEzIANO WITH A CHEST
FULL OF JEWELS ON HIS HEAD.
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