What did it all mean? Critics and visitors could not foresee that the same station, built a few years earlier, would end up the inspiration for a high jewelry necklace more than a century later.

So you’ve inherited some jewelry from a relative, or got a potential bargain on a few pieces at a flea market or estate sale. How do you know if it’s costume jewelry or the real stuff?

Matthieu Blazy, the creative director of Bottega Veneta, is in Venice describing his unhurried approach to the house’s latest endeavor: its first fine jewelry collection. We are discussing these ...