BURLE MARX (Brazil 1911-1992)

The Burle Marx brothers were three exceptionally talented brother, two of which successfully created and then dominated Brazilian modernist era jewellery between the thirties and the eighties.

Haroldo, a master jeweller and trained lapidary and Roberto, a landscape architect came from a well-to-do family of German Jews, distantly related to Karl Marx, who moved to Brazil at the very end of the 19th century.

Haroldo ran a successful business in Rio where his work was the pride of the nation. He was a big promoter of Brazil’s local gemstones and as such, opal, tourmaline, beryl, aquamarine, amazonite, citrine and amethyst are widely used in most jewellery creations. Catering to an enviable list of clients including Natalie Wood, the Shah of Iran, Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Queen Elizabeth to name but a few, the Brazilian Government would often commission him to make gifts for visiting foreign dignitaries. Japan’s Empress Nagako for example, received an opal necklace on her visit to Brazil.

Roberto, known as a true Renaissance man, is associated with more than 2000 gardens, 50 plants that were named for him, often collaborated with renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and most famously, designed the black and white pebbled boardwalk in Copacabana. He also designed the very imaginative gems that his brother would set into big, bold and curvaceous jewellery that epitomises the Burle Marx style. The gemstones Roberto conceived were called Forma Livre cut, or free form cut and transformed Brazilian semiprecious gems architectural elements in jewels.

In 1967, Time referred to the three brothers as “the most amazing and talented brother act in Brazil”.

In 1982, Burle Marx jewellery became available in the United States through a small shop in the lobby of the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., which attracted many celebrities such as Sammy Davies Jr and Oscar de la Renta. The New York Times published the story chronicling the sale with high praise from Paul Desautels, curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s department for minerology.

Burle Marx jewellery is increasingly collectible.