Something about me

My ongoing apprenticeship

I was born in Rome and for as long as I can remember I have always been fascinated by jewels, something that was certainly of no interest to my immediate family. I graduated from Cambridge University with a thesis, not surprisingly, on jewels depicted in paintings in Florence during the Early Renaissance.

My search for employment led me to the best possible place to see, touch and get to know the greatest number and diversity of quality jewels: an auction house.

I spent 14 years at Sotheby's: initially in London starting with making photocopies and tea, then I progressed to cataloguing in Geneva, and finally I became an expert, appraiser, an auctioneer and head of the jewellery department in Amsterdam.

In 1997 I began a 18 year collaboration with Bulgari, forming the company's historical archives and creating Bulgari's permanent retrospective collection of jewels, watches and precious objects.
This then led me to curate the first five major exhibitions on Bulgari held in Rome, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai and San Francisco.
Today I am recognized as one of the most knowledgeable experts of Bulgari.

As a consultant I also collaborate with important jewellery houses, among which VBH, Pomellato,Vhernier and Van Cleef & Arpels - L'École.

I am a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (FGA). I served on the committee of the Society of Jewellery Historians (UK) and have been a member of the Society since 1985. More recently I was elected member of the Università e Nobil Collegio degli Orefici Argentieri e Gioiellieri dell'Alma città di Roma, the goldsmiths' guild established in Rome in 1508.


What I love the most about my work

Obviously, my greatest joy comes from wearing or handling a beautiful jewel. And it is a joy I wish to share with others.

Therefore, alongside jewellery consulting activities, I have been and continue to be involved in jewellery education.
Many still today consider my course "Understanding Jewellery with Amanda Triossi", held at Sotheby's Institute in London from 1992 to 2000, a milestone in jewellery studies.

I believe that the history and evolution of jewellery design and the understanding of precious materials, techniques and fashion are of vital importance for all those associated with the world of jewels:
jewellery designers, manufacturers, sales' staff, art historians, antique and period jewellery dealers, appraisers, gemmologists, stylists, collectors, and jewellery amateurs. One cannot exclude either all those stunning women who wear jewels on the red carpet and are too often unaware of what they are wearing and how to wear them to the best advantage.

Especially now when a great number of those jewellery houses, that made the history of jewellery design in the 20th century, have become part of luxury conglomerates and multinationals, are becoming distant from their initial world of rarefied and exclusive jewellery, knowledge and understanding of the sublime art of jewellery is even more important.

Services

Exhibitions
Amanda Triossi curates jewellery exhibitions. Her recent major exhibition has been the retrospective on the jewellery house Bulgari. With over 600 objects, they were held in Rome, in Paris, in Beijing and Shanghai.

Expertise
Amanda Triossi MA in Art History and FGA Fellow of the Gemmologica Association of Great Britain, reserchese, catalogues, authenticate and appraises jewels for private individuals as well as companies. She worked for fourteen years for the international auction house Sotheby's in jewellery department and eighteen years as curator of the Bulgari Heritage Collection.

Lectures, Courses and Seminar
Amanda Triossi researches and presents bespoke lectures for academic and private institutions.Her lectures have a reputation for being informative as well as entertaining. She has held worldwide seminars ans courses on the history of jewellery. The outstanding reputation of the intensive "Understanding Jewellery with Amanda Triossi" course, held in London for Sotheby's from 1992-2000, and her world-wide short seminars continues into the 21st century.

Collections
Amanda Triossi curates collections of 19th and 20th century jewellery for private individuals as well as companies. She advises what to buy and is able to source best jewels. She initiated and built up the Bulgari Heritage Collection over a period of 18 years.

Why jewels?

Jewels made of rare and precious materials are a distinctive characteristic of us humans and date back to the dawn of civilization.

Anthropologist and archaeologists believe that primitive men began to be interested in personal adornment at the time when they began to use words: this explains why jewels feature in the earliest archaeological finds.

From these early days jewels have never ceased to be owned and coveted by men and women world-wide. Jewels are an expression of wealth, power and status, they serve as talismans and amulets, they are barometers of economic and social history, they are closely linked to the discoveries of precious deposits whether metals or gems, they are intimately associated to history of fashion, they depend on the advancement of technology and they are a magnificent small scale art form, in most cases intrinsically precious.

Jewels appeal to all people, to all classes and to all genders, so ultimately they are trans-cultural, trans-social and trans-gender.

For all the above and many more reasons, I believe jewels are a fascinating subject matter worthy of study and possibly of greater understanding.

How it began

My initial passion for jewels was sparked as child when I saw photographs of the Coronation of the Sha of Persia and the Empress Farah Diba.
At the age of four, my mother gave me a magazine with pictures of the coronation ceremony of Reza Pahlavi, Iran's King of Kings.
These pages recorded a host of Orientally styled magnificent and eye-catching items - gem-studded crowns, carriages, a throne and Farah Diba wearing extraordinary jewels. I spent hours leafing through this magazine rather than more traditional children's books.
Clearly this glittering and gem-studded event struck my childish imagination and from then on I decided I would devote my life to jewels.
[...see photos ]
[ Photos Farah Diba Incoronation ]




[ hide photos]

Professional Experiences

CONSULTANT
From 1997 to 2015 consultant for Bulgari heading a project for the creation of the Bulgari Corporate Historical Archives in Rome and to develop and increase the Bulgari's retrospective collection. Curator of the first four major Bulgari exhibitions worldwide.
[...more about Amanda's Bulgari exhibitions ] [ read less about Bulgari exhibitions ]
2013 Guest Curator - The Art of Bulgari San Francisco, De Young Museum
2013 Curator - Bulgari Retrospective Exhibition, Singapore, Bulgari premises
2012 Curator - Bulgari Retrospective Exhibition, Tokyo, Bulgari premises
2012 Curator - Bulgari retrospective exposition, Shanghai, Aurora Foundation
2011 Curator - 1st Bulgari retrospective in Asia, Beijing, National Museum of China
2010 Curator - 2nd Bulgari exhibition featuring over 600 items, Paris, Grand Palais
2009 Curator - 1st Bulgari retrospective exhibition, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni:
"BVLGARI - Between Eternity and History - 1884-2009 - 125 years of Italian jewels")
. [ read less about Bulgari exhibitions ]

2000 and 2001 Jewellery Tour of Rome for Society of Jewellery Historians and for Golkonda Moscow respectively
1999 - 2003 Consultant for VBH Luxury: creation of a line of high jewellery in close collaboration with the founder and artistic director Bruce Hoeksema
1997 Collaboration began with Bulgari
1986 - 2000 Affiliation with Sotheby's, initially at Sotheby's London (1986), Geneva (1987) and Tel Aviv (1988).
1989 - 1992 Head of Sotheby's jewellery department in Amsterdam

TEACHING AND LECTURING
2019 Keynote speaker at the North West Jewellery Conference, Seattle
2019 Participated as lecturer at the second edition of Gem Genève, the new international jewellery fair held in Geneva.
2018 Keynote speaker at the North West Jewellery Conference, Seattle
2018 Participated as lecturer at the first edition of Gem Genève, the new international jewellery fair held in Geneva.
2018 Interviewed for the film "Calla a New Religion" for Vhernier and for L'École The School of Jewelry Arts - Van Cleef & Arpels for a short film on collecting
2018 Selected by Alta Gamma Italy as media partner for the jewellery section for the Premio Giovani Imprese, an award to promote and recognize excellence among young Italian designers/ entrepreneurs
2017 Consulted and lectured for Pomellato to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary
2016 Held, in partnership with Adventures in Art, a jewellery seminar at Masterpiece Fair in London
2016 - 2015 Organised, curated and held in partnership with Adventures in Art various jewellery-centric trips for collectors and jewellery amateurs, in India, Rome, Moscow and Milan
2001 and 2002 Organised, curated and led Jewellery Tour of Rome respectively for the Society of Jewellery Historians (UK) and for Golkonda of Moscow 1992 - 2000 - Organised and held 'Understanding Jewellery with Amanda Triossi' course at Sotheby's Institute in London, the first intensive one-month course entirely devoted to the history of Western jewellery design, offered in London Further seminars and lectures for Sotheby's worldwide as well as other institutions or companies.
[...more about Amanda's lectures and seminars ]
[ read less about lectures and seminars]
For Sotheby's:
in Europe -Amsterdam, Bruxelles, Geneva, London, St Moritz
in Asia -, Hong Kong, Singapore
in North America -Los Angels, New York, Seattle

For other institutions and companies:
-Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Saadiyat Island Cultural District, UEA -ACMI Australian Centre for the Moving Image -Melbourne
-Alrosa Diamond Company, Moscow
-Annual Antique and Period Jewelry and Gemstone Conference, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, USA
-American Society of Jewelry Historians, New York
-Arro Conference, Maxxi, Rome
-Artmark, Bucharest
-British Museum, London
-De Young Museum, San Francisco
-Gemmological Association, Tel Aviv
-Golkonda, Moscow
-Gem Genève, Geneva
-Istituto Europeo del Design, Milan, Rome
-IGI - Istituto Gemmologico Italiano, Milan and Rome
-Forum Interculture, Bern
-Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, Malta
-National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
-National Museum of China, Beijing
-North West Jewelry Conference, Seattle
-Phillips de Pury Auction House, Moscow
-Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan
-Society of Jewellery Historians, London
-Università Ca'Foscari, Department Asian and Northern African Studies, Venice
-Vhernier, Milan, Padua, Rome, Udine, Los Angeles
-Victoria and Albert Museum, London
-Victorian Box, Tokyo
[ read less about lectures and seminars ]

Bulgari Monographs

co-author Daniela Mascetti

Hardcover: 255 pages
Publisher: Leonardo Arte (1996)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-8878135987

Paperback: 255 pages
Publisher: Abbeville Press
New York (1996)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0789 202024

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Mondadori Electa (2007)
Language: Italian
ISBN-13: 978-8837051181

Hardcover: 319 pages
Publisher: Abbeville Press (2007)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0789209450

Bulgari Catalogues

Four Major BVLGARI Exhibition Catalogues

Rome Exhibition 2009

tra eternità e storia
- BVLGARI -
"dal 1884 al 2009
125 anni di gioielli italiani"

Paperback: 376 pages
Publisher: Skira (2010)
Language: Italian
ISBN-13: 978-8857203003

Paperback: 376 pages
Publisher: Skira (2010)
Language: English
ISBN: 978 88 572 0048 4
EAN: 88-572-0048-5

Paperback 369 pages
Publisher: SKIRA (2009)
Language: French
ISBN-13: 978-88 572 0049 1

Paris Exhibition 2011

- BVLGARI -
"125 ans de magnificence italienne"

Hardcover: 388 pages
Publisher: Skira (2011)
Language: French
Paper back
ISBN: 978 88 572 00900-55
Hard Cover
ISBN: 978 88 572 0770-4

Hardcover: 388 pages
Publisher: Skira (2011)
Language: English
Paper back
ISBN: 88 5720 830-5
Hard Cover
ISBN: 978 88 572 0910-4

Beijing / Shanghai Exhibitions 2012

- BVLGARI -

Paperback: 376 pages
Publisher: Skira (2011)
Language: Chinese
Paper Back
ISBN: 978 88 572 1141-1
Hard Cover
ISBN: 978 88 572 1142-8

San Francisco Exhibition 2013

The Art of
BVLGARI
"La Dolce Vita and Beyond 1950-1990"

Hardcover:377 pages
Publisher:Allemandi(2013)
Language: English
ISBN: 978 88 422 1200 3

Earrings

co-author Daniela Mascetti

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Thames & Hudson (1990)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0500281611

Hardcover: 222 pages
Publisher:Thames & Hudson (1991)
Language:French
ISBN: 2-87811-031-5
EAN: 9782878110319

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Propyläen,
Frankfurt am Main,Berlin (1991)
Language: German
ISBN: 3549072309
EAN: 9783549072301

Hardcover: 222 pages
Publisher: Longanesi
Language: Italian
ISBN -13 : 978-8830409842

The Necklace

co-author Daniela Mascetti

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Thames & Hudson (1997)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0500017678

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Harry N.Abrams Inc.(1997)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9780810936829

Others

Entries:"Bulgari"
"Hedy Martinelli"
"Fabio Salini"
"Vam Gard"
"Vehrnier"
The Jewelry Book
Edited by Melanie Grant
Paperback:482 pages
Publisher:Phaidon Press(2024)
Language: English
ISBN-13:

Catalogue Introduction.
Alexandra Albini Jewels
Hardcover: 377 pages
Publisher: Silvana(2017)
Language: English/Italian
ISBN: 978 88 366 37 898

Essay:
"Andrew Grima.
An outstanding international jeweller
of Maltese descent".
"Vanity, Profanity & Worship"
Jewellery from Maltese Island (2013)

Essay:"Bulgari".
Dizionario del Gioiello
Paperback:377 pages
Publisher:Allemandi(2005)
Language: Italian
ISBN: 978 88 422 1200 3

Essay:"Bulgari"
L'Arte del Gioiello
Paperback:482 pages
Publisher:Giunti editore (2001)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978 88 090 1907 2

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• 2021 Palazzo Tornabuoni
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• 2019 Jewelry Journey 2019
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