Blackamoors are exoticized figures of African men in subservient positions, dressed in turbans and jewels. They’re a Venetian tradition and and are considered collectibles in the art world. But luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana was branded racist by some consumers for its Spring 2013 collection featuring prints with dark-skinned, slave-like women and blackamoor figurine earrings.
And Princess Michael of Kent recently caused a stir and drew outcry for being racist by wearing a blackamoor pin to the Queen’s Christmas lunch, a holiday event that Prince Harry’s fiancee, Meghan Markle, attended. Markle is biracial.
Sorokko thinks so. He says Codognato jewelry is of a quality on par with works by Fabergé, Bulgari, Cartier and JAR, which have all mounted exhibitions in museums. He specializes in contemporary art and has shown works by Donald Sultan, Sol LeWitt and Damien Hirst, among others.
“When you are dealing with a work of art, different rules apply,” Sorokko says. “It’s art; I’m not a jewelry store.” (As is the case with other exhibitions, the Codognato pieces are for sale for 75,000 euros each, or roughly $90,000.)
Codognato (pronounced coe-don-YAH-toe) dates to 1866; its designs are intended to be reminders of life and death. The Sorokkos are collectors of the macabre jewelry, as is Bay Area philanthropist Maria Manetti Shrem and modern-day celebrities such as pop star Elton John, model Kate Moss, actress Nicole Kidman and Princess Firyal of Jordan.
The late Vogue editor Diana Vreeland was known to collect blackamoor jewelry, notes Martin Chapman, a curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who remembers that several of her blackamoor pins were shown in the “Cartier and America” exhibition here in 2009.
Whether others could safely wear blackamoor jewelry without criticism (or being labeled a racist) is open to question.