museum

Joden Girl

Baubles, Bling, and Missing Things

It was luck.  Being in the right place at the right time.  That is what initially spurred a younger Joe Murawski to begin collecting the rare works of renowned jeweler, Carlo Giuliano.  When a colleague passed up an opportunity to buy a tiny intricately enameled butterfly, Joe stepped in and purchased the lifelike gem.  The images below show the butterfly featured on an early piece of Joden advertising.

In the years since, Joe has collected and privately placed over forty pieces of the work of the Giuliano family; some from the father, and some from the sons, Carlo Joseph and Arthur.  The current collection features twenty three examples, each one a treasure in its own right.  The crown jewel, in Murawski’s eyes, is an extremely rare multicolored enamel cross (shown below).  Acquired from a private source, the cross is a true one of a kind.

In what can only be called a case of mysterious disappearance, eight Giuliano pieces vanished four years ago.  We had kept the rarest of the collection in one box in Joe’s office…  a gem-set bracelet worn by Queen Victoria (pictured below), an agate scarab and enamel pendant, a garnet-carved cameo of the Greek god Mercury, a multicolored sapphire and enamel bar pin, a moonstone cruciform pendant, a black and white enameled mourning locket, an oversize Lapis Lazuli cross, a heart-shaped pendant depicting a multicolored enamel cherub (shown below), and a fine carved opal cameo with rose cut diamond frame.  All of these were in a cardboard box, marked on one corner was the word “Giuliano” in Joe’s handwriting.

It was a late summer day in August of 2012.  Joe had a client in the office, and as was his habit, he showed the Giuliano collection.  Playback of video surveillance shows him opening the butterfly-style box containing the Victoria bracelet, sharing it with the client, then placing it on the desk beside him.  This is the last tangible evidence of those pieces.  They were never seen again.  Several theories have been postulated – perhaps the box was knocked off the desk into the garbage can.  Perhaps they were stolen.  Perhaps the box is still here somewhere…  waiting to be found.  Four years have passed since that fateful day, without even a hint as to what may have transpired.

It was only in researching this post that I discovered that ours was not the first box of missing Giuliano jewelry.  After his death in 1895, Carlo the father bequeathed a selection of his enamels to the South Kensington Museum (Victoria & Albert Museum) to be displayed outside the tea room.  In 1899, the box that contained the pieces was stolen.  Experts theorized that the items were melted for scrap gold value.

For a collection that began with a stoke of luck, it nearly ended with a stroke of misfortune.  In the days and weeks after the loss, our passion for the collection waned.  However, as more time passed Joe added several newly acquired pieces to the collection (like the brooch pictured below).  Our original love was restored.  The Giuliano collection is once again in its place of honor, quietly gracing the top tier of our museum case.

Written by Carrie Martin