Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1Mellerio dits MellerMellerio dits MellerBefore Cartier or Tiffany existed, this Paris house was already old. Mellerio dates its founding to 1613 and has stayed with the same family ever since, which by most accounts makes it the oldest family-owned jewelry business in Europe. The family came from northern Italy, and the house now sits on…0
  2. 2ChaumetChaumetIf one kind of piece defines Chaumet, it is the tiara. Marie-Étienne Nitot founded the house in Paris in 1780 and became jeweler to Napoleon's imperial court, making the sword for his coronation, a tiara for Pope Pius VII and jewels for the Empress Joséphine. That imperial grandeur is still the…0
  3. 3Tiffany & Co.Tiffany & Co.America's great jewelry house began in 1837 as Tiffany & Young, a New York shop founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and J.B. Young. Its most lasting contribution is the engagement ring as most people picture it: the Tiffany Setting of 1886, a six-prong solitaire that lifts the diamond above the…0
  4. 4House of FabergéHouse of FabergéFabergé is remembered for objects more than for rings and necklaces, and that is exactly why it belongs here. Gustav Fabergé founded the firm in Saint Petersburg in 1842, and his son Carl, who took it over, made it the supplier of the most famous luxury objects of imperial Russia. The first…0
  5. 5Cartier (brand)Cartier (brand)Cartier has more than one signature, which is part of its genius. Louis-François Cartier founded the house in Paris in 1847, and the brothers Louis, Pierre and Jacques Cartier later spread it across three cities, with Louis in Paris, Pierre in New York and Jacques in London. Two codes are worth…0
  6. 6BoucheronBoucheronBoucheron helped make Place Vendôme the address for fine jewelry. Frédéric Boucheron opened his first shop in the Palais-Royal arcades in 1858 and moved to 26 Place Vendôme in 1893, and the house is often described as the first of the great modern jewelers on the square. Its best-known design is…0
  7. 7ChopardChopardChopard started as a Swiss watchmaker, founded by Louis-Ulysse Chopard in 1860, and its jewelry identity rests on one charming idea. In 1976 designer Ronald Kurowski, struck by sunlight on a Black Forest waterfall, proposed letting diamonds move freely between two sapphire crystals. The result,…0
  8. 8BulgariBulgariBulgari is the house for color and Roman swagger. A Greek silversmith, Sotirios Voulgaris, built the business in Rome, where "Bulgari" had become a brand name by 1884, and the flagship on Via Condotti is still its home. Where the Paris houses favored faceted diamonds and restraint, Bulgari built a…0
  9. 9Mikimoto (company)Mikimoto (company)Every cultured pearl necklace in a jeweler's window owes something to Mikimoto. Kokichi Mikimoto produced his first hemispherical cultured pearls on July 11, 1893, after years of failed attempts, and opened his first shop in Tokyo's Ginza district in 1899. That makes Mikimoto the rare house whose…0
  10. 10HemmerleHemmerleHemmerle is the house to see if you think fine jewelry has to look expensive to be serious. Brothers Joseph and Anton Hemmerle founded it in Munich in 1893 by taking over a goldsmith that made medals and orders, and it made ornaments and medals for the Bavarian royal court. The modern Hemmerle…0