The Italian jewellery firm, Janesich, is best known for its Art Deco pieces, particularly their intricately enamelled vanity and cigarette cases. Yet, the family firm was founded a century before.
Leopold Janesich (1802-1880) was Dalmatian born but learnt the jewellery trade in Italy. In 1835 he opened his first shop in the North Eastern Italian coastal city of Trieste. The shop was located on the Capo di Piazza and sold silver wear and jewellery.
Trieste in the mid 19th century was a thriving trading port. Janesich’s initial clients included bankers, merchants and ship owners. Wealthy Austrian tourists visiting the Italian coast were also important clients. The popularity of Janesich quickly led to the firm expanding its client and supplier network across Italy to Florence, Rome and Venice, and up to Vienna.
Leopold’s son, Giovanni (1836-1927), became involved in the firm and soon turned its attention towards the jewellery capital of Europe, Paris. In 1896, under Giovanni’s initiative, the Italian family business opened it’s first shop in Paris on Rue de Lafayette. A few years later, Giovanni’s son Alberto moved to Paris to oversee the daily running of the shop and establish the firm’s international reputation for makers and dealers of Fine jewellery.
Alberto’s brother, Giuseppe, together with his father managed the firm’s head-quarters in Trieste. This was a savvy business move employed by other family run jeweller’s like the Cartier brothers. The spread of family members ensured the upholding of exceptional standards and a consistency in management for clients to trust. Giovanni with his two sons cultivated a place amongst other prestigious jewellers such as Bulgari in Italy and Boucheron, Chaumet and Vever in France. Along with strong communication, the two locations aloud the constant transference of jewellery made in Paris and sold in Trieste or vice versa.
Alberto forged important social connections in Parisian high society. He was a frequent guest in the opera box of Princess of Metternich. Princess Ruspoli and the Baronnesses Rothschild and Forest bought many pieces from Janesich. Duke Amedeo of Aosta, Archduke of Austria and King Nicholas of Montenegro were also important clients at the turn of the century.
In 1913 Alberto opened an office in London at 179 New Bond Street. Further expansion came in the same year when Alberto bought two properties in France from the Foustickker family: One on the fashionable Rue de la Paix in Paris, the other in the centre of Monte Carlo opposite the grand Casino.
Although the outbreak of World War One the following year affected business over the next few year, by 1920 Janesich had expanded further. During the interwar period Janesich opened shops in the fashionable French seaside resorts of Deauville, Vichy and Biarritz. Here they attracted the European aristocracy and new wealthy American socialites. In 1925 Janesich was awarded the Royal Warrant of the House of Savoy.
The interwar years might have been successful, they also brought the deaths of a generation of Janesich members. In 1927 Giovanni died. A decade later in 1933 and 1937 respectively the brothers, Alberto and Giuseppe also died. A new era was bought in by Giuseppe’s son, Pietro who joined the firm in 1927. Despite the personal losses, this period also saw the production of the firms most iconic pieces in the emerging Art Deco style.
Today, Francesco, the sixth generation of Janesich family members, continues to run the firm from Trieste.
Janesich is perhaps best known for their Belle Epoch diamond jewellery and later for its innovative Art Deco vanity and cigarette cases.
With the genius of Alfred Langlois, Janesich produced some exceptional designs for compacts, cigarette holders and cases worked in lacquer, enamel, gold and diamonds. A beautiful example of such a case from 1920 was sold at Sotheby’s London in 2019 for £6,000 (double its estimate). It containing a gold lipstick holder, powder compartment and mirror. This case was designed by Langlois. Its lid and base are decorated in a zig-zag pattern of highly stylised enamel lines in lapis blue interspersed with turquoise triangles all outlined in gold.
Janesich has collaborated with Boucheron, Van Cleef and Arpels and the watchmakers Baume et Mercier who produced the mechanisms for Janesich’s elegant watch cases.
Perhaps in tribute to their Italian homeland, Janesich produced a crown for the Madonna in the sanctuary of Castelmonte.
In May 2019 at Sotheby’s ‘Magnificent Jewels and Notable Jewells’ auction in Geneva, a Janesich cascade necklace of diamonds and carved emerald beads dated from the1920s, sold for £239,814.
