Assouline release a new book on Brazilian jewellers H Stern

(Image credit: Michael Ainscough)

last updated 21 October 2022

A leaf through Assouline’s celebration of H Stern makes you realise that it has been a long time coming. We all know the latter as the world’s most recognised Brazilian jewellery name, established by a canny German, Hans Stern, in 1945. He saw the rich international potential in South America’s local, semi-precious gem trade. Yet his approach was different.

Unlike many jewellery houses, H Stern has primarily viewed the exquisite natural resources of its South American home – gold, semi-precious stones – as a creative tool, acting as if sculptor-jewellers. To that end, a thread of suitably starry design collaborations is laced through the fabric of its 70-year history. Oscar Niemeyer, the Campana Brothers, Tim Burton, Roberto Burle Marx and Diane von Furstenberg are just some of the creatives with H Stern jewellery collections to their names. Today, that vision is further boosted by artistic director Roberto Stern’s canny creative instincts, as this timely book attests.

Ancient America collection — The 'Ancient America' collection of 2010 mined the spiritual side of America’s early civilisations, referencing the power of naturalistic symbols. The 'Fish' bracelet mimics the graphic formation of iridescent scales. Made using noble gold, an H Stern alloy mix, yellow gold and cognac diamonds, the meticulous finish and construction is exemplary

ring with stone — The Stern family had a personal connection to the family of Roberto Burle Marx and so the bond with the landscape architect, who had also started designing jewellery in 1948, was formed early on. In 2011, the Brazilian jeweller paid homage to its great friend, launching a collection in his name and inspired by some of his greatest designs. The garden at the Safra Bank HQ in São Paolo inspired this ring, which also plays with stones – it is made of noble gold, and black, cognac and white diamonds

Rock Season collection — 2013’s 'Rock Season' collection is a fine example of how artistic director Roberto Stern is always casting a wide creative view, refusing to be pinned entirely to the influences of his home country. Taking cues from the London punk scene – spikes, strangeness, nature’s dark side – he revisited its energy as something precious, sleek and modern

Oscar Niemeyer was a cool 100 years old when he made his debut as an H Stern jewellery collaborator in 2008. The centenarian architect agreed to design a jewellery collection only if the forms were drawn from his sinewy sketches and weren't a reference to his architecture. The house designed the pieces to capture the atmosphere of the proportion between empty space and concrete. Oscar’s only other request? 'It has to be beautiful'

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the H Stern website

Photography: Michael Ainscough

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Caragh McKay is a contributing editor at Wallpaper* and was watches & jewellery director at the magazine between 2011 and 2019. Caragh’s current remit is cross-cultural and her recent stories include the curious tale of how Muhammad Ali met his poetic match in Robert Burns and how a Martin Scorsese Martin film revived a forgotten Osage art.