Giovanni Raspini on display with his jewels: “Beauty is born where you don’t expect it”

Giovanni Raspini had already planned everything: at the age of 70, in 2020, he would retire, leaving his silver jewelery company in the hands of his daughters Costanza and Giannina. Then Covid forced him to redesign the future he had just begun to imagine. Today, four years later, he is still at the helm – creative and entrepreneurial – of the house he founded in Pieve al Toppo, in the province of Arezzo, and which after the pandemic recorded an increase in turnover from 20 million euros in 2019 to 34 of management 2023.

“We are satisfied with these numbers which arise from a constant path, characterized by continuity and solidity”, says the entrepreneur. Other data give the identikit of a lean reality, but with secure foundations: 35 shops (mostly in our country, with some strategic showcases abroad), 160 employees of which 25 artisans and a totally Italian production, rooted in the territory Tuscan. From the beginning, when Raspini went door to door to sell his first silver objects, the typical agility of family businesses remains: “We do everything in house: design, marketing, sales. We are able to change strategies and projects very quickly “, points out.

He is an entrepreneur, but the role in which he best recognizes himself, as a long-time architect-designer, is “that of the creative, or rather, of the director and talent selector”. Working with him in the style office are designers, model makers and craftsmen who – as a talent scout and teacher at the master’s degree in jewelery history and design at the University of Siena – he personally chooses. Together they brought the exhibition to life Superstones – Jewels from the heart of the Earth, the fifth created by the maison, dedicated “to the beauty of minerals, semiprecious stones and marbles”. We are far from the tried and tested paths of goldsmithing, because instead of gems there are fascinating but unusual materials, never used in jewelery due to their dimensions and characteristics. “Together with the mineralogy department of the University of Florence, we decided to explore the world of geology. We were interested because we think that beauty arises from unexpected sources. And, in the 30 unique pieces of the Superstones collection, it arises from an intuition of color , shape and light that transfers onto hyaline quartz, turquoise, malachite”.

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These extraordinary stones, together with corals and baroque pearls, are the raw material of the sculptural necklaces, bracelets, earrings and oversized rings of the exhibition (in Milan, at the Fonderia Napoleonica Eugenia, from 24 May to 2 June; in Rome, at Palazzo Colonna, from 7 to 9 June; in Catania, at Palazzo Biscari, from 28 to 30 June), all made by Giovanni Raspini’s goldsmiths. “The Roman jeweler Alessio Boschi, my collaborator, created the Kraken ring in the shape of an octopus starting from a scaramazza pearl. Erika Corsi, head of our style office, created a necklace adorned with a large green malachite, surrounded by enamelled parrots and tropical leaves in gilded bronze”. The animalier inspiration, which has always characterized Raspini’s work, is expressed in the material textures and fluid shapes of dolphins, orcas, moray eels, birds, in dialogue with some of the rarest and most sought-after stones from all over the world. Thus, on the Profondo Blu ring, embellished with intense azurite, dolphins chase each other in gilded silver. On the Orca tiara many small cetaceans dance under imposing transparent quartz spiers.
These jewels are the result of research work that reflects the vision of the brand: at the centre, in addition to a never-to-be-obvious aesthetic, there is Italian know-how. “We are a country with a manufacturing vocation, manpower is our greatest wealth. Maybe we are not good enough at promoting it, but for me Made in Italy is in excellent health”, concludes Raspini. In Monte San Savino, near Arezzo, he restored the Palazzo dei Topi d’Argento, the ancient residence of the Renaissance sculptor Andrea Sansovino. Today it is a museum dedicated to Italian craftsmanship: “It is open from Friday to Sunday and is always sold out”.