Founded by Sotirios Boulgaris (1857 - 1932), a skilled silver caster and chaser of Greek origin who grew up in Albania and then Corfu. In its early years, jewelry was a very small percentage of the wares of the first Bulgari shops opened around Europe between 1881 and 1905.  By the mid 1920’s, Sotirios had handed off his various subsidiary shops to relatives, Italianized his name to Sotirio Bulgari, opened a new larger shop on the Via Condotti and begun concentrating on the sales of antique silver and jewelry. After Sotirio’s death in 1932, his two sons changed the name of the firm from “S. Bulgari” to “BVLGARI” in block letters as found in Roman inscriptions. This logo is still used today and the firm remains a family-run business.