When Mario Buccellati (1891-1965) returned from war in 1918 to find that the company he had worked for since he was twelve had been sold and he no longer had a job he decided there was only one thing to do, buy it back.

And so it was that Milan’s prestigious jewellery firm Beltrami e Besnati, where Mario had been apprenticed as a goldsmith, became Mario Buccellati in 1919 with a shop in the city centre on Largo Santa Margherita. Mario supplied the Milanese high society with diadems and necklaces, evening bags and cocktail rings and his success grew quickly. In 1921 he was invited to exhibit his jewels in Madrid at the palazzo di casa Errayz y Comp, where he was patronized by the Spanish Royal family and by 1925 he was ab...