A love affair with 18^th century Portuguese jewelry lies behind Larkspur & Hawk’s latest collection. The new designs have distilled, with a feather-light touch, that rich period of jewelry creation that came about specifically from the spoils of 18^th century Portuguese trade routes, and the results are sumptuous but effortlessly contemporary. Called Luzia, the collection name literally translates to “sparkling light” in Portuguese.

In the 1700s, Portugal was a world leader, acquiring colonies and exotic trade routes. Among those was Brazil, a country still known today for a plethora of collectible gemstones of vast variety and color. In particular, this specific colony was responsible for giving 18^th century Portuguese jewelry some very unique characteristics that collectors continue to covet today. Most notably, the jewelry was set with a very high ratio of stone to metal.

For Luzia, founder and designer Emily Satloff reimagines some of these specific codes of 18^th century Portuguese jewels that she has long admired. She focuses on a favored stone color palette from the period as well as introduces her most detailed stone clusters which are meant to elicit the feeling of a multitude of stones set with minimal, almost invisible bezels. Luzia is an ode to a very specific period of one country’s adoration of extravagant jewelry from centuries ago, but also it is a contemporary take on unusual gemstones and color combinations.