ADAM'S Fine Jewellery & Ladies Watches 12th May 2026

TUESDAY 12 TH MAY 2026 . STARTING AT 4PM 128 Founded in Venice in the mid-1920s by the Floren- tine-born Giulio Nardi , the house became one of the jewellers most closely associated with the city’s self-image: refined, theatrical, and steeped in history. Giulio arrived shortly after the First World War, having helped defend Venice at the Battle of the Piave, for which he was awarded the Croce al Merito di Guer- ra in 1919. After losing his railway position due to his anti-Fascist views, he opened a small shop on Piazza San Marco, initially dealing in fine Venetian objects such as glassware and linen, before turning fully to jewellery. Workshops were established just behind the Piazza, where he collaborated with local craftsmen and began designing pieces himself. The shop has re- mained in the same south-western corner ever since, now extending across five arches and run by the third generation of the family. Nardi’s production has always been rooted in Ven- ice: its architecture, iconography, and history. From its long-established premises, the house developed a distinctive jewellery language defined by brilliance of surface, richness of ornament, and a natural sense of spectacle. Inspiration was drawn from Venetian ar- chitectural details, translating façades and structural forms into design, while maintaining a traditional, small-scale approach to craftsmanship and sourcing. At the centre of the Nardi identity is the Moretto brooch: a turbaned Moorish head, finely carved in ebony, tortoiseshell, or sardonyx, and enriched with diamonds, coloured stones, and elaborate goldwork. This creation production started in the 1930’s and since the 1940s, total production has never exceed- ed seven thousand pieces, made by no more than ten craftsmen. Each Moretto is unique and individual- ly signed. The result is a body of work of remarkable richness and control, at once sculptural and decora- tive, disciplined yet theatrical, reflecting the elegance and drama so often associated with Venice itself. The figure of the Moor was not Giulio’s invention, but Venice’s. The city had long been a centre of cosmo- politan exchange: a trading republic looking east as readily as west, where Vittore Carpaccio depicted a dark-skinned gondolier as early as 1496, and where William Shakespeare found the multicultural com- plexity that informed both The Merchant of Venice and Othello. Positioned at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and the East, Venice drew its identity from trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange across the Mediterranean. North African and Middle Eastern figures formed part of its visual and ceremonial life, while along the Dalmatian and Istrian coasts, gold- smiths produced small Moorish heads, Moretti, as protective amulets for seafarers, often incorporat- ing vitreous cameos from Murano. In miniature, the Moretto captures this distinctly Venetian synthesis of luxury, diplomacy, and imagination. The brooch attracted a discerning clientele attuned to its symbolism. Ernest Hemingway commissioned a richly gem-set Moretto during his postwar visits to Venice, giving rise to the so-called Hemingway Moret- ti. Grace Kelly favoured versions set entirely with di- amonds, while designs for Elizabeth Taylor incorpo- rated sapphires and yellow gold. Some examples concealed miniature watches within hinged torsos; others opened to reveal detailed scenes of the Vene- tian Lagoon or the Doge’s Palace. More recently, such imagery has prompted reflection on history and representation, with collectors such as the late Vogue editor Diana Vreeland and the former director of the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco, Denise Bradley Tyson who said: ‘every time I wear one they always provoke a response and pro- vide me with an opportunity to educate about the his- tory of the Moors’. Among the most refined interpretations is the View of Venice, created in the early 1970s. Owing to the intri- cacy of its manufacture, no more than four examples are produced each year. From its beginnings in the 1920s to the present day, Nardi remains inseparable from Venice itself, its his- tory, imagination, and enduring continuity as a fami- ly-run house. A c i t y t r a n s f o rmed i n t o a j ewe l . . . Article about Nardi and other Italian jewellers, International HeraldTribune, 15th of September 1955. © Courtesy of Nardi