Serpenti BraceletBy Bulgari
Bulgari’s classic serpent first reared its head in the late 1940s. Bulgari founder Sotirios Voulgaris’s sons, Giorgio and Constantino, took over the Italian fine-jewelry house when their father passed away in 1932, and the brothers conceived the motif for a series of wristwatches — a nod to snakes’ mythological association with the beginning and the end of time — which became the basis for an entire line of jewels. The design was immediately popular among Bulgari aficionados, but its star turn came in 1962, when it graced one very famous wrist.
That year, Elizabeth Taylor was in Rome shooting Cleopatra alongside her future husband, Richard Burton. In a publicity photo released from the set, the actress can be seen with a gold cuff coiled around her wrist, ending in a pavé diamond snake head — a Bulgari Serpenti bracelet. Taylor’s relationship with the jewelry house ran deep: she and Burton allegedly used the back doors of its flagship store in Rome to escape the paparazzi during their much-buzzed-about affair. “The only word Elizabeth knows in Italian is Bulgari,” Burton famously said.
Taylor’s stamp of approval catapulted the Serpenti to international fame, and the jewelry house began experimenting with variations on the motif, setting jewels along the cuff or on the head. In still another version, dozens of individual enameled scales are painstakingly attached to a central core.
The snake’s myriad meanings across cultures no doubt contribute to the Serpenti design’s allure. In some cultures, it connotes evil, in others fertility. In Voulgaris’s native Greece, the coiled serpent symbolizes everlasting life.
Bulgari Serpenti Bracelet
21st Century and Contemporary Unknown Bangles
Gold, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
2010s Italian Bangles
Diamond, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Modern Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
2010s Italian Modern Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, White Gold
2010s Modern Bangles
Diamond, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
2010s Modern Bangles
Diamond, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Bangles
Diamond, Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s Italian Bangles
Diamond, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Bangles
Diamond, Rose Gold
2010s Modern Bangles
18k Gold, Rose Gold
Late 20th Century Italian Art Deco Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s Italian Modernist Bangles
Diamond, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Cuff Bracelets
18k Gold, White Gold
Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Cuff Bracelets
Gold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s American Art Deco Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, Gold, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Thai Art Nouveau Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, Gold, Rose Gold
2010s Italian Chain Bracelets
Amethyst, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Artist Bangles
18k Gold
Antique Early 1900s Bangles
Diamond, White Diamond, Gold, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
Vintage 1950s Spanish Retro Bangles
Turquoise, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s French Contemporary Bangles
Diamond, Gold, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Bangles
Diamond, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s Modern Bangles
18k Gold, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary French Bangles
Diamond, 18k Gold, White Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Bangles
Diamond, Rose Gold
2010s Italian Modern Modern Bracelets
18k Gold, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Bangles
Diamond, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, White Gold
2010s Italian Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Cuff Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, Rose Gold
2010s Contemporary Retro Bracelets
Diamond, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
2010s Modern Bangles
Diamond, Malachite, Sapphire, 18k Gold, Rose Gold, Gold
2010s Italian Bangles
Diamond, Yellow Gold
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Bangles
Diamond, Ruby, 18k Gold, White Gold, Yellow Gold