Georgian period: The History of Jewelry, Jewellery and Jewelery - 1Earth Jewelry, Antiques and Appraisals Magazine

Georgian Jewelry 1714-1837

George I ascends the throne of England with no idea of the revolutions ahead. Fahrenheit invents his mercury thermometer, which will cause legions of children to squirm for generations to come. Handel's Messiah has its glorious premier, and Ben Franklin sends up a kite to confront electricity. Diderot begins work on his exhaustive Encyclopedie. A rowdy bunch of New England colonialists in Indian drag scale British merchant ships in Boston Harbor and heave-ho their tea supplies into the briny deep. The steam engine is invented, breaking the first ground for the Industrial Revolution. Uranus is discovered. So is Uranium. The Montgolfier brothers are the first humans to leave the earth in a balloon. Meanwhile, mutiny is in the air. The French revolution erupts the same year that Masters Mate Fletcher Christian wrests authority from Lieutenant William Bligh, and takes command of Her Majesty's Ship, the Bounty. George Washington is elected the first American president. The Smallpox Vaccine is discovered. Beethoven writes his first symphony, Louisiana is purchased, and the battery is invented. The first photographic image is made.

Despite the rapid progress of history in this period, Georgian jewelry was balanced, symmetrical, regal and elegant. Closed settings covered the backs of stones and most pieces were routinely remounted to keep abreast of current fashions.

Larger stones, clusters of gems, and ribbon bow motifs supported by pear-shaped drops were the favored motifs. Necklaces were, for the most part, simple rivières. The ever-popular brooch surfaced in cluster buttons, starbursts, crescents, and flower heads.

However, the human passions of the period also affected the jewelry market. After the French Revolution, jewels stank of the Ancien Regimé and its anti-Republic sentiments. Most jewelry was exported from France by fleeing aristocrats selling it to survive. Other pieces, including the crown jewels, were confiscated and often dismantled. What original jewelry was created during the Revolution tended to commemorate that event and lacked both style and imagination. When the Terror ended and the Directorate took over, France gradually regained its stability. Luxury items resurfaced and the jewelry trade revived.

A new dawn reflected the rebirth of equilibrium among a traumatized people. There rose a Greek revival of sorts, and a love of Roman antiquities that harkened back to former ages of culture and order. Women demanded dresses designed as high-waisted tunics; these were dampened to cling to the feminine body, idealizing it as Greek or Roman statuary. Springtime colors of white, yellow, lilac and pistachio brought back the breath of life after the Reign of Terror's pall of death. Whatever jewelry was worn enhanced rather than detracted from that imagery. Rings were worn on every finger; simple gold bands decorated wrists, forearms and the upper arms. Long chains of flat geometrical links, often adorned with stylized heart motifs or Greek Key patterns, were worn around the neck, across the shoulder, or crossed on the bosom. Neo-Greek and Roman hairstyles brought in the popularity of pendant earrings cut from thin sheets of gold with two to three gold links of flat geometrical design shaped as lozenges, shields or acanthus leaves.

Napoleon brought back the crown jewels to France and refitted them to reflect the new fashions. Parures of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, pearls and diamonds were worn for state and court occasions. These were decorated with Greek Keys, acanthus leaves, palmettes, formal volutes, laurel leaves, arches and eagles. Cameos and Intaglios from Italy celebrated a great time in the sun. Paris jewelers set them in precious stones and metals, as well as in more affordable shell, putting them in tiaras, necklaces, bracelets and earrings mounted in simple gold collets with seed pearl borders joined by light, delicate gold chains. Despite Paris's best efforts, the greatest cameos still came out of Italy, signed by such famed designers of the times as Pistrucci and Girometti. Another high fashion item were Roman mosaics done in polychrome opaque glass held within mother-of-pearl, dark blue or black glass frames. Meanwhile, the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt introduced new elements of design into everything. Jeweler brimmed with sphinxes, pyramids, palms and papyrus leaves.

Prussia defied the Napoleonic occupation and a new jewelry style was born. Known as Berlin Iron, these were delicate pieces of jewelry done in neoclassical and floral designs fashioned from iron and lacquered to a glossy black. Patriotic Prussian women were given this jewelry in return for having volunteered their own costly gold and gems to the resistance efforts against Napoleon. This may seem like a raw deal, but Berlin Iron saw quite a vogue. Nor was this was not a singular phenomenon. Cut polished steel and a form of iron pyrite called Marcasite were crafted to look like diamonds. Closed settings with colored foil backing, so long the standard, were gradually losing favor. The new open mounts were letting light through to enhance the natural brilliance of fine gems.

Sometime after 1820 Naturalism returned to waistlines as well as to decorative motifs. Accents were suddenly seen as roses, morning glories, fuchsias, cornflowers, ears of wheat and leaves of countless varieties. There was a short revival of the formal style recast in the modern mold, but it didn't last long. Because years of war had depleted resources, jewelry designers had to do much with little to make it appear ample. Semi-precious stones were clustered to enhance their richness, while the filigree cannetille style was seen everywhere, with red, yellow and green gold combined for new effects. The designer Edouard Marchant created cuirs, and started a fashion stampede. These were thin gold leaf rolled and cut to resemble leather scrolls engraved with decorative motifs. Painted enamels came out, mounted on gold and embellished with gems and decorative reliefs. Special enameling processes such as Champlevé and guilloché found great favor with the buying public. Joining the craze for mourning jewelry were memorial rings of black enamel closed within gold borders and richly chased with floral motifs. Gem-set aigrettes decorated the hair, necklaces and bracelets abounded, and coral gained such popularity that it was absolutely de rigor for women of fashion to own coral parures.

Tiaras were designed as diamond-set laurel leaves with ruby berries, or wreathes of diamond leaves. There were openwork designs with suspended briolettes, and a Hellenistic version rising to a gable point at the center of the brow and sloping downwards. The Bandeau, a version of the tiara, displayed gem-set clusters or cameos worn on the forehead. Combs had decorated rectangular mounts, often as filigree galleries surmounted by carved coral or amber beads, while Spanish combs came with metal or tortoiseshell prongs and surmounts of gems, cameos, or gold scrollwork. Earrings were made à poissarde, in geometrical patterns set with gems, but mostly as dangling pendants and elegant, gem-encrusted pear shapes. Necklaces were gold chains of cameos, intaglios, and Roman mosaics. They also held gems or seed pearls set in light, delicate gold work. Pendants, usually worn en suite, were mostly seen as Maltese crosses or a cruciform embellished in precious or semi-precious stones.

Bracelets were worn in great numbers and including wide ribbons of gold mesh. Bracelets consisting of a silk ribbon with a gold clasp were called à la Jeannette. Diamond or gemstone link bracelets were done in geometric patterns. Rings were plentiful and worn almost constantly. Most were seen as half hoops set with a single or a double row of gemstones with shanks of soldered gold wires done in leaf designs that splayed out to form shoulders. Gem-set navettes were common, as were large centered gemstones surrounded by clusters of flower head styled gems. Brooches were quite the favored item, done in sunbursts, stars and crescents. Formal and spiky sprays of gems, and simple flower head brooches made up the balance.

Bringing these all together were parures, seen almost everywhere. These were done in precious and semi-precious stones, usually mounted in extremely fine cannetille settings that imitated fine lace enriched with leaf, rosette and burr motifs. Parures were especially popular because fashion dictated that jewelry be worn in abundance. Gems, or at least articles of gold, had to be dripping everywhere and in every form. These included pendants of all shapes, especially cruciforms, necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets, combs and brooches. Leaves, flowers and scrolls stamped from gold leaf seemed to decorate everything.

Three other jewelry items were ubiquitous during this period and should not be overlooked. Small buckles, generally oblong, round or oval, were worn at the center of a belt or a ribbon and marked the high waistline. While these served no overt function, they were certainly pretty, decorated with motifs in pearl, topaz, amethyst or gold. Men's tiepins, another lovely indulgence, were cast in enamel, onyx, turquoise, cornelian, and diamonds, or as a combination of gemstones with chased gold fashioned in naturalistic designs such as snakes, birds or animals' heads. Finally, no gentleman of prestige was without his seal. These items were made in linear designs with domed settings. Simple surmounts were fashioned as a lyre, stirrup, scroll or baluster. Common were family crests or coats-of-arms engraved in bloodstone, carnelian, citrine, quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, or chalcedony set in gold. For the not so rich it was colored pastes and gilded metal with an engraved motto in place of a coat-of-arms.

The modern world was gathering fast apace, but with the ascension of Victoria to the English throne a tone would be set that would affect not only Britain but also the world. Whatever its faults, or its false sense of stability amidst the turmoil, this period was the last gasp of old world privilege. It would stand to usher the old century out with a modicum of grace before the arrival of that looming monster, the Twentieth Century.

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