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Bulgari Ceylon Ruby "Serpenti" Bracelet
This opulent five-coil gold, Ceylon ruby and diamond "Serpenti" bracelet dates from the Dolce Vita period of 1950s Rome, when Bulgari jewels reached new creative and technical heights. Drawing on beloved ancient models from art and archaeology, the bracelet is designed as a coiled snake whose rounded body is composed of hand-formed curved tubogas links surmounted by beaded mesh, its engraved head with flickering tongue set with a fine oval-cut Ceylon ruby, diamond accents, and diamond eyes. With its astonishing flexibility, and soft, sinuous feel, the bracelet winds beautifully up the arm, an emblem of Bulgari’s modern style and unequaled craftsmanship bringing to life a classic jewel worn by the empresses and goddesses of the Minoan, Egyptian and Roman worlds.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: BA-19994
Artist: Bulgari, Rome
Country: Italy
Circa: 1955
Size: 29’’ length, 0.625’’ width
Materials: Oval-cut Ceylon ruby (total approximate weight 2.50 carats); 4 Old European-cut diamonds (total approximate weight 1.20 carats); 18K Gold (total approximate weight 178 grams)
Signed: "Bulgari Italy"
Documentation: Together with American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) certificate #1113269 from March 30th, 2021, stating the ruby’s origin is Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with no gemological evidence of heat
Literature/Exhibition History: A diamond and emerald serpent bracelet of this complex beaded model, belonging to the Bulgari Heritage Collection, was displayed in the 2016 exhibition “Serpentiform” at the Museo di Roma, along with work by Alexander Calder, Nikki de Saint Phalle, and Joan Miró, among other modernist artists, and appears in the exhibition volume on p. 222
Painstakingly created in a specialist Bulgari workshop whose methods were closely guarded, the “Serpenti” jewel’s naturalistic suppleness was said to lie in the engineering of a hidden spring within the tightly intertwined and interlocked bands of Tubogas coil, giving these period serpent bracelets their seductive feel and flexibility.