Tuscany travel:
Florence Goldsmiths

Ponte

Vecchio - Photo © Rita Crane (photo for sale)

The art of the goldsmith

The production of handcrafts in Florence has always gone hand in hand with the production of art, and the most outstanding example of this centuries-long cooperation and cross fertilization for mutual enrichment is without doubt the art of the goldsmith.  Melting, engraving and crafting have been conducted on the Ponte Vecchio since 1593 when Ferdinando I dei Medici decreed that the shops of the gold and silversmiths and jewelers be moved from the area of the new San Lorenzo market to the Ponte Vecchio.

From the end of the 14th century, silversmith production in Florence was of two different kinds. There were the Grand Duchy shops whose products – mainly for the continual flow of orders from the Court – were extravagant, experimental, highly refined, and open to ideas from abroad; and there were the workshops of the Ponte Vecchio, whose more traditional kind of product was for a more mundane public and the nascent bourgeoisie. 

Despite times of hardship, the craftsmen are still there on the bridge and in the streets nearby. They continue their work in a host of little shops where crafting is still done by hand with ancient techniques to produce precious objects of every kind and style including great masterpieces of silverware fashioned with chisel and burin.