Panetta Huge Brutalist Gold Plated Pendant/Brooch with Green Crystals

Panetta Huge Brutalist Gold Plated Pendant/Brooch with Green Claw Set Crystals featuring a pear-shaped brooch of organic design with seven green pear-shaped crystals alternating randomly with eleven green oval-shaped crystals at the border and an organic cluster of thirteen green oval-shaped crystals at the centre. This is a beautiful and striking piece by Panetta signed ©PANETTA on a rectangular cartouche on the reverse and it measures 8.5cm long and 6.2cm at its widest point and it weighs a hefty 50g. It has a large fixed oval loop to be worn as a pendant, and it has a vertical pin with a rollover clasp to be worn as a brooch - a beautiful example of this wonderful company's work.

Italian born, fine jeweller, Benedetto Panetta moved to America in 1901 where he continued his work as a jeweller, eventually working as a model maker for Trifari in the 1930's and then for the Pennino Brothers before setting up 'Panetta’ in 1945. His craftsmanship and passion were unquestionable - his vision was that Panetta's jewellery would blur the line between precious jewellery and costume jewellery and having worked for many years with both fine jewellery and costume jewellery he had the perfect set of skills to achieve this.

His wonderful designs and high quality materials coupled with smaller production runs created a strong fan base pulling in celebrity fans as well as a First Lady. After the death of Benedetto in 1960, his sons Amadeo and Armand continued the family business, their designs moved with the trends, but they never compromised on the quality Panetta had become renowned for. The brothers eventually sold the company to one of Panetta's best customers in Japan in the late 1980's where production continued until 1995.