Hemmerle is a Munich-based jeweler founded in 1893 by brothers Joseph and Anton Hemmerle.
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Background
Anton and Joseph Hemmerle established Hemmerle when they received a Royal warrant of appointment to create medals for the Royal Bavarian Court, Bavarian Order of Merit. The Hemmerle boutique at 14 Maximillianstrasse opened in 1904 and remains there today.
Stefan Hemmerle, Joseph's grandson, manages the company along with his wife Sylveli. Christian and Yasmin Hemmerle, their son and daughter-in-law, manage design and product development.
Stefan Hemmerle in 1995 designed a ring for the wife of a Munich art collector, in response to her practice of wearing Berlin iron jewellery (which Germans received in exchange for donating their gold and silver jewels toward funding the War of Liberation). He set a diamond in textured iron rather than in gold or platinum. The combination of common metal with a precious stone was unusual.
Design
Hemmerle jewellers use gemstones including orange-pink sapphires, green diamonds or conch pearls. often set in unorthodox materials such as copper, steel or wood. Each piece is designed bespoke. The family import materials including South China Sea Melo pearls or blue aquamarines from Brazil’s Santa Maria mines.
Hemmerle’s styles include the tassel earring, creating using a traditional Austrian technique of knitting together cut stones often in bright colours into invisibly stitched strands.
Hemmerle’s harmony bangle was included the permanent collection of the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in October 2010.
In 2011, the Hemmerles co-wrote a book Delicious Jewels with the chef and author Tamasin Day-Lewis, published by Prestel Publishing.
Hemmerle's Bangle Bracelet, Egyptian Story, 2012, became part of the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City in January 2013.
In 2014 the company designed a jewellery collection consisting of twelve brooches, two pairs of earrings, a necklace and a ring, themed with by fruits, seeds, leaves and trees.
The company also published a poetry book, Nature’s Jewels. through the art-book publisher Mack with poems by Greta Bellamacina.
In 2016 Hemmerle announced The [AL] Project, a series of jewels exploring the properties of aluminium, previewed at TEFAF in Maastricht. In the same year, Hemmerle participated in Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. This fifth instalment of the Triennial exhibition series is dedicated to beauty, featuring work from over sixty voices in the global design scene.