G. Petochi

Roman jewelry. Located in Piazza di Spagna. Jewels, icons, high artisan’s craft silverware or ancient English, American, French, Italian and, in particular, Roman silver jewels, jades, and mosaics. Tiny ancient mosaics mounted on silver boxes, necklaces, broaches, bangles in their original frames. The passion for this minor form of art brought Domenico Petochi, one of the heirs of the brothers Giuseppe and Domenico, who in 1884 had opened their workshop in Via dei Pontefici, to deepen his research in order to publish a book entitled I mosaici minuti romani (Roman Tiny Mosaics). The art with very small colored tesseras has been typical of Rome since the mid 1700s until the end of 1800s, and drew its origins from the studio of the Reverenda Fabbrica of St. Peter. The subjects represented sites of remains, landscapes of the Roman countryside inspired to ancient prints, to paintings and still lives or flowers, birds and butterflies, in which the artist could express himself more freely. Most of the Petochi’s Collection is exhibited in the Vatican City. In the small palazzo in Piazza di Spagna, on the left of the stairs of Trinità dei Monti, where it has been since 1942, the jewel’s boutique continues its business along the path traced out in 1928, when from a simple artisan’s laboratory it turned into an atelier of jewels.