Dogale Jewelry, Goldsmith in Venice
Sospiri Bridge area, behind the Basilica of San Marco,
canonica bridge, castello N° 4318 – Map where we are
Telephone 00390415287549 –
Mobile & WhatsApp / Telegram 0039 3299 143598
Precious handmade jewelry artisanal production
Since 1969 Dogale Jewelry is a family-run craft business The owner is Mr. Giorgio Berto Egildo together with his sons Alessandro and Ursula
Giorgio Berto works with the gold since 1950, takes its place with a passion to learn the art of gold in the laboratories of the city who created jewelry for important account of the best shops in Venice.
Thanks to ‘instinct a passion for drawing and fancy jewelry he learned early the art of settings engraving of jewelry, essential for the creation of entirely blackamoor and other beautiful jewels.
A bit of history:
Blackamoors as a jewel .. but if you have a taste for mystery also talismans. The blackamoors brooches that are produced and sold in our shop are jewels of the Venetian goldsmith tradition, in fact they are born from the original synthesis, made in Venice, of various cultural suggestions. The origins of the Blackamoors go back to distant times, when Saracen pirates infested the coasts of Dalmatia. In the Hellenistic age in Fiume, in Istria, gold earrings and black and white enamel were produced, with the function of a powerful talisman. During the centuries of the great fear of the Ottoman Turks, the terrible law of the strongest was in force, the populations of the coast always brought the moretti and donated them to the churches as a sign of thanks for the escaped danger. From this the amulet was born in Venice, not to exorcise attacks from the sea, but to represent the Turkish pirate conquered by Venice and the Doges of her, therefore celebrated as a triumph and reinterpreted as a rich jewel in gold and precious stones. One of the most famous references to the Moors is that of Othello, the Moor of Venice by Shakespeare. The protagonist is precisely a Moro, a general in the Venetian army. In Venice the Moors are quite everywhere, there is even the Campo dei Mori. Noble coats of arms of families with the surname Moro or with depictions of faces of “Moors” are common in Venice. For example, the clock tower in Piazza San Marco has 2 Moors striking the hours (although in reality the two characters are two shepherds probably later called Moors with the oxidation of the bronze they are made of) in the early sixteenth century in Venice various paintings were painted in which Islamic figures appear above all the famous one of the exorcism of the possessed by Vittore Carpaccio it is curious to find out how Moresco, Moreschi, Morone, Moro, Moretto, Moretti, Morello, Moroni Dal Moro and so on from nicknames these become real surnames, in Trento there is a town named Mori! Returning to jewels with the Moors, they are objects that speak of our city, in our century the imagination of the Venetians has given rise to infinite variations on the theme: bust and turban have become a scenic space where the best techniques learned from the local goldsmith are represented with fretwork, engravings, watermarks, and also with beautiful fired enamels. The craftsman using the power of the heat of the oven, and an ancient technique, colors the jewels in the most varied shades among the most beautiful colors undoubtedly red, green or blue the heads are almost always in ebony wood. The Blackamoors have also been appreciated by personalities of international stature such as Grace Kelly, Elena of Spain, Ernest Hemingway, Elton John, Diana Vreeland, in recent times the style icon Iris Apfel who loves models rich in pearls wears them. André Leon Talley right arm of Anna Wintour disappeared in 2022, the only black fashion journalist and artistic director of Vogue often wore an imposing dark brown bust brooch at fashion shows. The actress Julia Jäger instead wears our Blackamoors parure in the German TV series Commissario Brunetti. And today? Moretti jewels continue to be the coveted object of elite collectors. Simple tourists, incognito stylists, or loyal Venetians regularly visit our Atelier, many are demanding and capricious customers; even if the city is no longer that of the legendary 1950s, princes and dukes, marquises and countesses of the European aristocracy still pass through the shop, to fulfill a secret whim, or give a stylish gift.
In our shop in Venice – a few steps to the Duomo behind the Basilica of to the Hotel Danieli – you will have a large choice of many models of Venetian blackamoors (earrings, broochs, pendants and rings), you will have the possibility to look at the goldsmith during his work, who will explain t you how the craftsmanship’s realisation of the blackamoors is carried out.
At the Dogale jewellery is possible to order a jewel with the gems and the colours you prefer, or transform rings and other objects you have and also repair your blackamoor. You can recive the new collection just sending us an e-mail at info@webjewels.it, we will be pleased to send you also some pictures
Trade data: established in Venice, sestiere of castello, 4318 Ruga S. Apollonia Canonica Bridge
e-mail info@webjewels.it
Partita Iva 00275430270
trademark VE106
Registration with the Chamber of Commerce No. 98170th rec No. 11808th
We are a physical store and shop with the production plant established in Venice we promote through the website in a virtual exhibition, we can personally guarantee our products!
Store hours (9.30/12.30 – 15.30/19.30) for any further information please call +0039 041 5287549 closing day Sunday, in summer the store also closes on Saturday afternoon.
Perché sceglierci?
Our successful products
The Moors
The name and shape derive from the term mori, which at the time indicated Muslims or, by extension, Saracen pirates. The origins of these jewels go back to the time when the Saracens raided the Dalmatian coast.
The Skulls…Vanitas and more..
There are various and multiform interpretations that can be given to these objects: dark fetishes, passion for the dark, the decadent or the paranormal, lucky charms, superstitious and propitiatory objects, taste for mystery, fashion or simple collecting. The skull has always been a very assiduous image in the art world, in 600 memento mori in Belgium and Holland it was a very fashionable pictorial trend. Skulls as symbolic elements, allusive to the theme of the transience of life, and as a religious philosophical theme of the ineluctability of death, the inconsistency of earthly goods, the ephemeral, and the futility of human pleasures; the skull is the cultural and aesthetic universality of a theme not necessarily funereal but evergreen, which does not go out of fashion like a Doors record. In Christian culture, for example, the skull is a symbol of eternity, repentance; skulls for the man or woman who cannot escape death but through them can exorcise it.
Here then are our collections, with simple or elaborate skulls, with enamels and diamonds, in gold or silver. Ancient symbols, absolutely up-to-date..
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Engravings!
Glyptic from the Greek glyptos, “engraved” is a very ancient art by which hard stones and gems or other suitable materials such as shells for cameos are engraved. This technique makes it possible to make seals, carvings or even small objects such as heads, skulls, flowers and more. In our laboratory we engrave stones such as carnelian, jasper, pencils, onyx to make seal rings with noble coat of arms or mythological images; if you have your own design to reproduce we can make your personal jewel.
