Mastery of Design: The Canary Giardinetti, 1730-60

Giardinetti Ring
Unknown Maker
Europe, 1730-60
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The term “Giardinetti”—literally a little garden—is assigned to jewels, especially rings, which represent flowers, particularly those colorful pieces which were made in the Eighteenth Century.

Here we see a giardinetti ring with an openwork bezel. The ring takes the form of a flower set with a table-cut canary yellow diamond, rubies and emeralds, with chased scrolling openwork shoulders. Each shoulder is set with a brilliant-cut diamond.

Made between 1730 and 1760, the ring was created in western Europe by an unknown jeweler.