The Marte pendant seen from the front, hanging from its silver chain

Collection Marte·Pendente

Silver Marte pendant with oval coral and five diamonds on gold claws

Name: Silver Marte pendant with oval coral and five diamonds on gold claws
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: PA221cor
Price: 700.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Five diamonds on gold claws within twenty-two millimeters of oxidized silver, around an oval coral.

€700,00 PA221cor

Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.

The coral is oval and domed, solid red, polished smooth until it has not one facet: the light does not enter it, it slides over it. Around it the silver does not close a regular circle — it is open in branches that overlap, like a piece of reef rock, and every void has a shape of its own. The recesses stay blackened, the raised areas are brought to a polish: the design comes forward by contrast. Between the branches sit four diamonds, each raised on its own yellow gold claws, and the fifth is higher, on the bail, which repeats the same piercing. Behind, the seat stays open: the coral can be seen from the back too, beside the silver hallmarks and a small gold plaque.

Seven grams ten of silver make the whole body; the gold is thirty-five hundredths of a gram and sits only in the five claws, that is, in the only point that touches the stones. The five natural diamonds add up to thirteen points of a carat, brilliant cut. The pendant measures twenty-two millimeters by seventeen: inside that space there are two metals that under the flame do not behave the same way and a stone that cannot be brought near heat. A branch of coral grows a few millimeters a year, so the cabochon at the center is a matter of years. The chain that appears in the photographs is silver, a trace chain, and ends in an extender closed by a small coral bead.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

7,10 gramsSilver 925‰

0,35 gramsGold 18kt 750‰

0,13 carats Diamonds · four around the coral, one on the bail

Metals: Silver 925‰, claws in 18kt 750‰ gold
Dimensions: Pendant 22 × 17 mm
Technique: Made entirely by hand in the company's goldsmith's studio: the silver opened into irregular branches, oxidized in the recesses and re-polished on the raised areas, the coral closed in a seat open at the back, the five diamonds mounted one by one on yellow gold claws.

The stones

Coral

At the center of the pendant

Cut: Oval cabochon
Note: Natural

The diamonds

Natural. Position, cut, carats, colour and clarity.

Four around the coral, one on the bail 0,13ct Brilliant —5 natural diamonds, total · yellow gold claws

Close front view: the four diamonds around the coral and the fifth on the loop

Close-up of the oval coral and of the yellow gold prongs that hold the diamonds

The silver openwork of irregular branches, with the blackened recesses and the polished raised parts

The back: the open seat shows the coral, next to the silver hallmarks and the gold plate

The pendant in three-quarter view, where the thickness of the openwork body can be read

The pendant hanging; on the left the chain extender, finished with a small coral ball

The chain laid out in full, with lobster clasp, tag and extender

Overall view, resting against a light stone

On driftwood: the red of the coral against the grey of the burnished silver

On a dark background, where the contrast between blackened recesses and polished edges reads better

The pendant and its chain on a red background

How it is made

The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.

Coral: Coral is not a mineral: it is the calcareous skeleton of an animal that lives in colonies, and it grows a few millimeters a year. It is not faceted: it is roughed out and polished to a curved surface, because every facet would be material taken from a branch that does not grow back. And it has to be protected afterwards as well: acids, perfumes and heat dull its color, and color once lost does not come back.
Oxidizing: The silver is darkened on purpose, and then re-polished only where the light has to come back. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the light on the raised areas: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
Gold and silver on the same piece: Silver melts at a lower temperature than gold and oxidizes quickly under the flame. Mounting the two metals on the same piece means heating just enough for the solder to take without sinking the silver, and cleaning the joint before the black of the flame stays sealed under the gold.
Claw setting: Claws are small gold nails that fold over the stone and hold it with a few millimeters of metal, with no setting behind. They have to be closed cold, one at a time, with the gem already in its seat: a claw closed too tight cuts into the stone, one left too loose loses it, and between the two there is not much margin.
Brilliant cut: Fifty-seven facets calculated so that the light entering from above comes back from the same side. It is the cut that makes a diamond sparkle, and the reason a badly cut diamond stays dull.

I don't look at what others are doing: I would rather create in my own style. That is what makes our jewelry recognizable.
Fabio Gori — Anna Gioielli, Tosi

Made for you

Every piece leaves the bench made to order: sizes and details are agreed before the work begins.

The goldsmith's workshop is also the place where made-to-measure jewellery is created and family pieces are restored: if you have an idea, or something you want brought back to how it was, that is where it starts.

Ask for a made-to-measure piece

Made by

Anna Gioielli

A goldsmith's workshop in Tosi, on the slopes of the Pratomagno: Anna opened it in 1988, her sons Fabio and Francesco carry it on. Piercing, repoussé, chasing and burin engraving — the Florentine school, with the workshop in full view of the shop.

All the creations by Anna Gioielli