OUT of the BOX

The Mosaico range of high jewellery from history-obsessed brand Buccellati is only its second to be designed as a single, cohesive collection.

- GORDON NG

In a blue velvet-lined space, an Italian woman sits at a desk surrounded by an array of tools. A pair of spindly magnifiers is perched on her nose, and in her hands, which rest on a leather sandbag, are an unremarkable slab of metal and a wickedly sharp burin. There’s an almost imperceptible scraping sound as she carves tiny, pinprick lines on the metal with the tool.

It’s hard to make out at a distance what effect her minute movements are making. But an uncomfortably close lean into the table reveals straight lines being shaved off to create square sections, tiny circles carved to form holes for gems, and a lighter, shinier surface revealed by the engraving. Beside her, Luca Buccellati, a third-generation member of the Italian jewellery house, is twisting a gold bracelet—the flexible, finished form of that slab of metal—in explanation. The burin, he recounts, can be dangerous; as a child with neither training nor expertise, he had mucked around with one and ended up in the hospital with a hole in his hand. It’s an interesting anecdote that highlights the craftsmanship demanded of the techniques employed at Buccellati, which has made age-old, Renaissance-era methods its signature. I’m in Macau to witness an exhibition of its works— enhanced by the presence of an artisan to demonstrate in real time—as well as the opening of a new boutique at MGM Cotai.