All about Zakynthos

In the arches next to the Gouverneur's palace were a row of jewellery shops. "Beneath these galleries are a few jewellers, whose heavy and clumsy articles show the kind of taste of the inhabitants in this matter," writes the traveller Muller. From Zois we learn that some families of Kalarrites of Epirus fled and settled in Zakynthos before the revolution of 1821 and some others during it, and that "some of them excelled as metallurgists". "From their works "they were admired. . above all the "thin chains, the so-called gordonia" which were particularly fashionable at that time.

The silversmiths of Zakynthos belonged to the wealthy popolarians. Their guild was founded before 1688, its members were obliged to buy gold, silver and jewellery certified by the guild's officers to avoid theft and fraud. By the regulation of 6 August 1808, goldsmiths were obliged to stamp their works with a special mark, so that, in case the buyer discovered fraud in the jewellery related to the quality or quantity of gold, it would be easy to identify the perpetrator.