Art Deco Modernist Brass and Shell Half Circle Necklace
A history of jewellery
Ancient world jewellery
Jewellery is a universal class of adornment. Jewellery fabricated from shells, rock and bones survives from prehistoric times. It is probable that from an early on appointment it was worn equally a protection from the dangers of life or as a mark of condition or rank.
In the ancient earth the discovery of how to work metals was an of import stage in the development of the art of jewellery. Over fourth dimension, metalworking techniques became more sophisticated and decoration more intricate.
Gilt, a rare and highly valued cloth, was buried with the expressionless so as to accompany its owner into the afterlife. Much archaeological jewellery comes from tombs and hoards. Sometimes, as with the gilded collars from Celtic Ireland which have been constitute folded in half, information technology appears people may take followed a ritual for the disposal of jewellery.
This collar was found in a bog in Shannongrove, Co. Limerick, Ireland, sometime before 1783. We practice not know what it was used for, just it was probably a ceremonial collar. On the inner side of the collar, under each of the circular terminals, is a pigsty. The collar probably rested on the chest and was held in identify by a chain running betwixt the two holes and passing circular the back of the neck.
Medieval jewellery 1200–1500
The jewellery worn in medieval Europe reflected an intensely hierarchical and condition-conscious society. Royalty and the nobility wore gold, silver and precious gems. Lower ranks of society wore base metals, such as copper or pewter. Colour (provided by precious gems and enamel) and protective power were highly valued. Some jewels have cryptic or magical inscriptions, believed to protect the wearer.
Until the late 14th century, gems were ordinarily polished rather than cutting. Size and lustrous colour determined their value. Enamels - ground glasses fired at high temperature onto a metal surface - immune goldsmiths to colour their designs on jewellery. They used a range of techniques to create effects that are still widely used today.
The images decorating the back of this cross were often used as a focus for meditation in the tardily medieval period. The scenes on the lid show the Instruments of the Passion - scourge, whip, lance, sponge and nails - which were used during the Crucifixion. A tiny fragment of one of them may have formed a relic, stored within the cross's now empty interior. Pearls symbolised purity, and the ruddy gems may have symbolised sacrificial claret shed by Christ.
Renaissance jewellery
Renaissance jewels shared the age's passion for splendour. Enamels, often covering both sides of the gem, became more elaborate and colourful and advances in cut techniques increased the glitter of stones.
The enormous importance of faith in everyday life could exist seen in jewellery, as could earthly power - many spectacular pieces were worn as a display of political strength. The designs reverberate the new-found involvement in the classical earth, with mythological figures and scenes becoming popular. The ancient art of precious stone engraving was revived and the use of portraits reflected another cultural trend - an increased artistic awareness of the individual.
Particular types of stone were thought to protect against specific ailments or threats, ranging from toothache to the evil eye. They could also encourage or banish such characteristics as bravery or melancholy. This scorpion etching dates from the 2nd or 1st century BC but has been reused in a medieval ring. Carved Greek or Roman stones were highly valued in the center ages. They were institute in excavations or in surviving earlier pieces of jewellery and traded across Europe. The scorpion had an enduring reputation as a protective amulet. It was believed to heal patients from poisoning and also, every bit symbol of the Zodiac sign Scorpio, it was associated with water and therefore believed to have a cooling effect on fever. Remedies confronting poisoning were also fabricated past infusing scorpions in oil and herbs. The Medici Grand Duke Francesco I (d. 1587) published a recipe for an anti-toxicant oil effective against 'all sorts of poisons ingested by mouth, stings and bites'.
17th-century jewellery
By the mid-17th century, changes in style had introduced new styles of jewellery. While nighttime fabrics required elaborate gold jewellery, the new softer pastel shades became svelte backdrops for gemstones and pearls. Expanding global merchandise fabricated gemstones ever more bachelor. Advances in cut techniques increased the sparkle of gemstones in candlelight.
The nearly impressive jewels were often big bodice or breast ornaments, which had to be pinned or stitched to stiff apparel fabrics. The swirling foliate ornamentation of the jewels shows new enthusiasm for bow motifs and botanical ornaments. The cardinal bow in this necklace is a magnificent example of a mid-17th century jewel. The painted opaque enamel was a recent innovation, said to have been developed by a Frenchman, Jean Toutin of Châteaudun. This striking colour combination was frequently used in enamels around this appointment.
18th-century jewellery
The end of the previous century had seen the development of the bright-cut with its multiple facets. Diamonds sparkled as never earlier and came to dominate jewellery blueprint. Oftentimes mounted in silver to raise the stone's white colour, magnificent sets of diamond jewels were essential for courtroom life. The largest were worn on the bodice, while smaller ornaments could be scattered over an outfit.
Attributable to its high intrinsic value, little diamond jewellery from this period survives. Owners often sold it or re-set the gems into more fashionable designs.
From effectually 1640, calorie-free swords with short, flexible, pointed blades appeared in response to new fencing techniques that emphasised thrusting at speed. They were worn increasingly with civilian wearing apparel equally 'pocket-size swords', offering a means of cocky-defense force just largely denoting status for the well-dressed gentleman.
Small swords were items of male jewellery. By the 1750s, their elaborate gold and argent hilts, mounted with precious stones and fine enamelling, were the products of the goldsmith and jeweller rather than the swordsmith. They were frequently given as rewards for distinguished armed services and naval service.
This sword is inscribed: 'PRESENTED by the Commission of Merchants &c OF LONDON to LIEUT.T FRANCIS DOUGLAS for his Spirited and active conduct on board His Majesty'south Ship the REPULSE. Ja.s Alms Esq.r Commander during the Wildcat at the NORE in 1797. Marine Social club Office, May 1o 1798 } Hugh Inglis Esq.r Chairman'.
Francis Douglas was rewarded for his role in suppressing a violent mutiny amid sailors at the Nore, a Royal Navy anchorage in the Thames Estuary in 1797. According to an account by an eyewitness, published in The Sheerness Guardian 70 years afterward, the ship, Repulse, fabricated a 'miraculous' escape from the mutineers reaching shore despite receiving 'equally was calculated two hundred shot'.
James Morisset, 1 of London's most celebrated makers of enamelled golden dress-swords and boxes, was commissioned to produce this sword.
19th-century jewellery
The 19th century was a period of huge industrial and social change, merely in jewellery design the focus was often on the past. In the starting time decades classical styles were popular, evoking the glories of ancient Greece and Rome. This interest in antiquities was stimulated by fresh archaeological discoveries. Goldsmiths attempted to revive ancient techniques and made jewellery that imitated, or was in the fashion of, archaeological jewellery.
At that place was also an interest in jewels inspired past the Medieval and Renaissance periods. It is a attestation to the menstruum's eclectic nature that jewellers such as the Castellani and Giuliano worked in archaeological and historical styles at the same time.
Naturalistic jewellery, decorated with clearly recognisable flowers and fruit, was likewise popular for much of this period. These motifs offset became stylish in the early on years of the century, with the widespread involvement in botany and the influence of Romantic poets such as Wordsworth. This big spray of assorted flowers has a pin fastening at the back and would take been worn equally a bodice ornament. Some of the diamond flowers are assault springs, which would increase their sparkle considerably every bit the wearer moved. Private bloom sprays could be removed and used every bit hair ornaments.
By the 1850s the delicate early on designs had given mode to more extravagant and complex compositions of flowers and foliage. At the same fourth dimension, flowers were used to express love and friendship. The colours in nature were matched by coloured gemstones, and a 'language of flowers' spelt out special letters. In dissimilarity with earlier periods, the more elaborate jewellery was worn virtually exclusively by women.
Arts & crafts jewellery
Developing in the last years of the 19th century, the Arts and Crafts movement was based on a profound unease with the industrialised world. Its jewellers rejected the machine-led manufactory system - by now the source of nigh affordable pieces - and instead focused on hand-crafting individual jewels. This procedure, they believed, would improve the soul of the workman equally well as the end design.
Arts and crafts jewellers avoided large, faceted stones, relying instead on the natural beauty of cabochon (shaped and polished) gems. They replaced the repetition and regularity of mainstream settings with curving or figurative designs, often with a symbolic significant.
The designer of this brooch, C. R. Ashbee, was a man of immense talents and energy and a defining effigy in the Arts and Crafts Move. In 1888 he founded the Guild of Handicraft in the Due east Stop of London with the intention of reviving traditional craft skills and providing satisfying employment in a deprived surface area of the urban center. Trained originally as an architect, he is known also for his highly innovative article of furniture, metalwork, silvery and jewellery designs.
The peacock was one of Ashbee's favourite and most distinctive motifs and he is known to have designed about a dozen peacock jewels in the years effectually 1900. Family unit tradition is that this brooch was designed for his married woman, Janet. Information technology was made past Ashbee'south Guild of Handicraft Ltd. at Essex House on the Mile End Road, London.
Art Nouveau jewellery and the Garland mode 1895–1910
The Art Nouveau style caused a dramatic shift in jewellery blueprint, reaching a peak effectually 1900 when it triumphed at the Paris International Exhibition.
Its followers created sinuous, organic pieces whose undercurrents of eroticism and death were a world away from the floral motifs of earlier generations. Art Nouveau jewellers like René Lalique too distanced themselves from conventional precious stones and put greater emphasis on the subtle effects of materials such as glass, horn and enamel.
However, the style'south radical look was not for everyone or for every occasion. Superb diamond jewellery was made in the 'garland style', a highly artistic re-interpretation of 18th- and early 19th-century designs.
The maker of this orchid hair decoration, Philippe Wolfers, was the most prestigious of the Art Nouveau jewellers working in Brussels. Like his Parisian contemporary René Lalique, he was greatly influenced by the natural world. These exotic orchids characteristic in the work of both. The technical accomplishment of enamelling in plique-a-jour (backless) enamel on these undulating surfaces is extraordinary.
Art Deco jewellery to the 1950s
Although buffeted by cycles of boom, depression and war, jewellery blueprint between the 1920s and 1950s continued to be both innovative and glamorous. Sharp, geometric patterns celebrated the car age, while exotic creations inspired by the Near and Far East hinted that jewellery fashions were truly international. New York now rivalled Paris as a centre for fashion, and European jewellery houses could expect to sell to, likewise every bit buy from, the Indian subcontinent.
Dense concentrations of gemstones are characteristic of Art Deco jewellery. From about 1933 aureate returned to fashion, partly because it was cheaper than platinum.
Artists and designers from other fields also became involved in jewellery blueprint. Their work foreshadows the new directions jewellery would take.
This brooch commemorates the breaking of the World Land Speed Record past Helm George Eyston in 1937. The auto depicted is Thunderbolt, which Captain Eyston designed, built and collection. Information technology was powered by 2 aero engines fabricated by the firm of Rolls-Royce, which presented the brooch to Captain Eyston's wife.
Contemporary jewellery
Since the 1960s the boundaries of jewellery have been continually redefined. Conventions accept been challenged by successive generations of contained jewellers, often educated at art college and immersed in radical ideas.
New technologies and non-precious materials, including plastics, newspaper and textiles, have overturned the notions of status traditionally implicit in jewellery.
Avant-garde creative person-jewellers have explored the interaction of jewellery with the trunk, pushing the boundaries of scale and wearability to the limits. Jewellery has developed into vesture art. The debate on its human relationship to Art continues.
Detect out more in our volume, Jewels & Jewellery.
Source: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/a-history-of-jewellery