Anna Jewels

In Tosi, where the air of Vallombrosa comes down off the Pratomagno, there is a goldsmith's shop with the workbench in full view of the counter. Anna opened it in the Eighties; since 1992 her sons Fabio and Francesco have been behind it.

Fabio is the hand that draws: the shapes come to him at night, and in the morning they become wax, then metal. «I don't look at what other people are doing» — he says — «I'd rather work in my own style». Francesco comes from the Florentine diamond trade and picks the stones one by one, with the international certificates that matter when a piece calls for them.

The techniques are those of the Florentine goldsmithing school: piercing that opens the metal, the burin that engraves by hand, repoussé and chasing. Alongside the gold and the precious stones there is a silver line that brings the same work to anyone not looking for gold — and, for some years now, certified lab-grown diamonds, for anyone who wants the stone without the mine.

In the same workshop, family jewelry is restored and reworked. Almost everything that leaves this place exists because somebody asked for it.