The white gold cross resting on a light stone: at the centre of the crossing the yellow gold rosette.

Collection Gioielli di Firenze·Pendente·Florentine style

White and yellow gold cross pendant, openwork and hand-engraved leaves

Name: White and yellow gold cross pendant, openwork and hand-engraved leaves
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: P272F
Price: 1260.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Four grams thirty of gold for four centimeters six of cross: the saw took away the rest.

€1.260,00 P272F

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

The cross is white gold and the arms are not solid: they are cut out with the saw in a pattern of leaves, with the voids opened right through, and every leaf is engraved with the burin one at a time. The four ends finish in leaves too. At the center of the crossing a yellow gold rosette is mounted; the jump ring is yellow gold as well, engraved with the same mark.

Four centimeters six tall including the jump ring, two centimeters four wide, four grams thirty of eighteen carat gold divided between the two colors. For a cross of this size that is a modest weight, and what makes it so is the emptiness: here the leaves are not an ornament laid on top, they are the structure, and it is they that hold the arms together.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

4,30 gramsWhite and yellow gold 18kt 750‰

Metals: White and yellow gold 18kt 750‰
Style: Florentine style
Dimensions: 46 × 24 mm (with the jump ring)
Technique: Made entirely by hand, with piercing and burin engraving.

Foreshortened view, with the yellow gold counter-link in burin engraving.

The cross hanging from the edge of the stone: the small ring that holds it to the counter-link is visible.

Full front view: the leaf design and the openings of the openwork on all four arms.

On a dark slate background, where the openwork reads opening by opening.

Close-up at an angle: the relief of the engraved leaves and the yellow gold rosette.

How it is made

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

Openwork: The metal is drilled and then cut out from the inside with a very fine saw, until the solid sheet becomes a drawing of voids. It is a technique that allows no second attempt: what is taken away does not come back.
Burin engraving: The burin is a goldsmith's small chisel pushed by hand. It does not scratch: it lifts a shaving of metal and leaves a clean groove that picks up the light. It is the mark that for five centuries has distinguished the Florentine goldsmithing school.
Two golds on the same piece: White and yellow have different hardnesses and different soldering temperatures: setting them together means working two metals that do not react the same way under the flame, and making them meet without the joint showing.

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