Hancocks London spotlights circa-1970 Illario bracelet with turquoise and lapis

Hancocks London put a sharp spotlight on a circa-1970 Illario bracelet built to teach the eye how 1970s Italian luxury looked and felt in the hand. The piece, chosen as the jeweller’s June Jewel of the Month in June 2026, is an articulated 18k yellow-gold brick-link bracelet set with turquoise, lapis lazuli and diamonds, and priced at £27,500.

The appeal is not only in the stones but in the structure. Brick-link construction gives the bracelet its modular, architectural rhythm, a hallmark of Italian jewelers who prized fluidity without sacrificing heft. Here, the yellow gold carries real visual weight, while the hardstone pairing does the styling work: turquoise brings brightness, lapis lazuli adds depth, and the diamonds punctuate the surface with a colder flash. That combination is exactly the kind of mid-century palette collectors use to identify the period at a glance.

Illario’s name matters because the workshop sat close to the center of Italy’s luxury jewelry orbit. Carlo Illario e F.lli was founded in 1920 in Valenza, Piedmont, by Carlo, Vincenzo and Luigi Illario, and by the 1960s the firm was showing internationally. Hancocks’ maker profile says Illario created many pieces for Bulgari during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, including the Serpenti watch bracelets that helped define the house’s snake motif, and also worked for Fasano and Faraone. That is the context collectors should hold onto: the bracelet belongs to a maker with documented links to some of the most recognizable Italian jewelry of the era, but the Illario attribution is still distinct from a Bulgari signature.

That distinction is where careful collecting begins. Bulgari’s Serpenti story is generally traced to the late 1940s, then expanded in the 1950s from watch bracelets into a broader jewelry language that later became synonymous with glamour and Elizabeth Taylor. An Illario bracelet from around 1970 sits in that same visual universe, but it should be read as associated with the era and its taste rather than automatically folded into Bulgari proper unless the piece itself is signed or documented that way.

Market listings reinforce the identification. BADA and LAPADA describe the same type of jewel as a vintage diamond, turquoise and lapis lazuli articulated link bracelet in 18ct yellow gold, confirming the construction and circa-1970 date. On 1stDibs, Illario jewelry spans a wide range, from about $3,900 to $44,000, underscoring how condition, scale, materials and maker attribution can move a piece dramatically. Hancocks London, which has offered fine antique, vintage and contemporary jewellery since 1849, used this bracelet to show that the best vintage Italian pieces are read not just by signature, but by the disciplined evidence of their making.