Nineteenth Century Jewelry Part II

Continued from: Nineteenth Century Jewelry Part I

Most of the early Empire jewellery is made on the flat. There is little relief or modelling. It has the appearance of having been cut with scissors out of the sheet and stuck together in the required form. There was a certain carefulness about the execution but no imagination about the designs, for the ornaments of this time usually consist of groups of certain stereotyped details, such as matted gold, cameos, strings of pearls, and chains.

Wreaths of laurel in gold or enamel are a frequent feature. These jewels were worn in great quantities, so that a fashionable lady was said to look like a walking jeweller’s shop. Cameos were Josephine’s favourite gems, and so they were naturally very popular ; and Wedgwood’s jasper cameos and shell cameos were enormously worn, and continued in use throughout the first half of the century. Diamonds were also worn in considerable numbers and of great splendour at Napoleon’s Court, but few specimens of this stone work seem to have survived, as owing to the value of the diamonds and other stones the ornaments have been broken up and remodelled. Quite a number of less important pieces in the Empire style, however, are to be found in old jewel-cases and the trinket-trays of provincial jewellers. Some of them are decidedly attractive in their way, though they generally want setting to rights before they can be worn; but even a good cleaning works wonders. The gold is often considerably alloyed and tarnishes quickly. The construction is often lacking in solidity, so parts are often found bent and. broken, which have to be straightened or replaced before we can judge of the original effect. Especially with the present style of dress they make very pretty ornaments.

The most characteristic of all are perhaps the combs, which were made in an enormous variety of designs and formed a leading feature of the head dress. They were generally very high, and ornamented with cameos, small mosaics, and mock or real pearls. Coral was often introduced, and a very charming effect was obtained by piqu ivory, worked in the way previously described for tortoiseshell. Pinchbeck, horn, ivory, and tortoiseshell, plain or craved, were all pressed into service, but the well-known pierced tortoiseshell combs with a curved top came later. Necklaces and bracelets were formed of the ubiquitous cameos looped together with fine chains or strings of pearls. Even before the overthrow of Napoleon, the reign of Classicism was on the wane, and with his downfall it seemed to come to an end somewhat abruptly. Throughout the Empire period, the large, fairly cheap stones, such as peridots, topaz, amethysts, and crystals, had had a considerable vogue set in the same way that cameos were used. Later on, the settings became much more elaborate. Stamped leaves and flowers of coloured gold, little domes of metal covered with granulations, and small flowers of turquoise and pearls were used to surround the principal stone. Rather superior in workmanship, and ever so much prettier in effect, is a kind of delicate goldwork made entirely without stampings, of milled-edge wirework, and tiny grains or beads. This is always exquisitely finished, and though light, is by no means fragile. It is very frequently set with such inexpensive stones as topaz (both pink and golden), half pearls, and small turquoise, and has a dainty and fairy-like appearance which, though perhaps a little trivial, is essentially feminine and very wearable. This style of work is used in rings, brooches, and necklaces with centre pendant, which generally have ear-pendants to match, but of course the sets are often broken up. These dainty though inexpensive fashions were of course favoured under the Restoration regime. Those who returned to Court had little of their old jewellery left, and not much money to buy any new.

The style of costume was quite changed, the luxurious and extravagant taste in dress, which had prevailed while Josephine set the fashion, gave way before the quieter taste of the old families, who felt that their manners distinguished them sufficiently from the common herd, without the necessity for extravagant expenditure, which they could not afford. Probably the “grapes were sour!” However, there certainly is a last flicker of eighteenth-century grace in some of these Restoration pieces.

A very favourite way of setting small stones was on heads of wheat, which were used in bunches as a hair ornament, and also for the corsage, sometimes alone and sometimes in a bouquet mingled with field-flowers in coloured gold or enamel. The fashion continued for many years. An interesting list is extant of the jewels accumulated by Mademoiselle Mars, the celebrated actress, from whom they were stolen in 1828. She had amongst them eight sprigs of wheat, no doubt used to wear in the manner of an aigrette. These were of brilliants containing about five hundred stones. She had many other brilliant ornaments (ladies of the theatrical profession always have had a great love for these valuable stones), but the bulk of her ornaments consisted of cameos, topaz, pale emeralds, and imitation pearls, which are invariably mentioned as being surrounded with small brilliants. Rather a pretty fashion, that of pave turquoise and t pearls, came a little later.

This is a method of setting stones close together, so that only specks of gold are seen between them holding them in place. They rely for their effect on the massing of the blue stones or small pearls and are generally made in somewhat uninteresting designs ; but the colour, whether blue or white shot with gold, is quite taking, and good pieces are sought after. There was a much later revival of this fashion, but the stones are generally poor in colour and the setting a little spiky, as it is not well finished. The old ones are generally so well burnished down that the tiny claws never catch in anything, such as lace or chiffon. About 1840, stamped and engraved jewellery came in for general use, while pieces in the manner of former periods had a very great vogue amongst the better-class jewellers. Some of them are actual copies of old pieces and are very accurate, so much so that they have sometimes been a source of perplexity to experts, but they generally give themselves away by ignorance of some detail. On the whole, the pieces are more reminiscent of the epoch chosen, than copies of actual jewels. For instance, if they wanted to make a mediaeval jewel (which was a fashion about 1835) they did not get a real piece of the time and follow it in all details, but instead they evolved “out of their inner consciousness ” something that they thought such a jewel might have been, but never was. They took details from architecture, iron work, embroidery, anything but jewellery, and of course the result would have considerably surprised a mediaeval goldsmith. The Renaissance was treated the same way, but also excellent copies were made as well ; and the modes of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. were also imitated, sometimes very accurately, but more often falling far short of the daintiness of the originals.

During the first half of the century there had been workers who despised the general half-hearted attempts to copy the Greek style, and determined, if it were possible, to get to the bottom of the secret of the exquisitely fine workmanship displayed in Greek filigree. They did not, perhaps, entirely succeed, but they did make a series of wonderful copies which easily might be mistaken by any one but an expert for original pieces of ancient workmanship. The history of this revival is a most interesting one, as the workers were faced by extreme difficulties. They were not enough to daunt Fortunate Pio Castellani, who studied the question deeply and was also to a certain extent helped by good fortune.

It was thought that the method had been entirely lost, but he succeeded in finding a few village workmen at St. Angelo in Vado, who appeared to have some remnants of knowledge of the old style. He brought some of them to Rome, and he and his sons worked with them, till they succeeded in reproducing the old effects. Whether they arrived at them by the old method is quite another question, and very hard to decide, as of course no documentary evidence of the Etruscan methods has been preserved. In his experiments, instead of using borax for a flux he substituted an arseniate and reduced the solder to an impalpable dust with a file. His business was carried on by a son, and another son made the beautiful collection of Europe peasant jewellery which may be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is interesting to note that he found that intelligent workwomen were better fitted to accomplish the very delicate parts of the work than men goldsmiths. This style of Greek jewellery has been kept up ever since, more or less, but it is usually much coarser and altogether clumsier than these beautiful Castellani copies. There are quantities of reproductions to be obtained in Rome, and indeed throughout Italy. They are sometimes attempted to be passed off as originals, and may be even actually seen dug out of the earth just as the tourist ” happens ” to pass by. This is of course a matter of arrangement with a guide, driver, or hotel keeper, on the part of the wily digger, so those who do not feel really qualified to judge will be wise not to believe in such ” finds,” or they may find themselves in much the same position as the tourist who bought a mummy in Egypt, and having accidentally broken it on the return journey found, to his indignation, that it was stuffed with a Birmingham newspaper of the previous year. This taste for Greek effects was not without its influence on much nineteenth-century design, especially before 1850.

Hair jewellery was a very usual way of commemorating a dear departed or making a gift to lover or friend. Chains, rings, and bracelets were made out of it, and one wishes they had not proved so unexpectedly strong and lasting. It is generally exceedingly ugly, and, but that one has ceased to be surprised at the depressing hideousness of the time, one would wonder at the possibility of any one ever finding anything pleasing in such things.

The iron jewellery is an interesting study in itself, though one cannot call it beautiful. It is entirely different from the steel work which was introduced earlier, and was also used contemporaneously with it. It consists of exquisitely fine castings after most intricate designs, entirely carried out in iron. It was made at a time when gold was scarce, having been used up in the wars. Some of the pieces were given by the Prusssian Government to those ladies who gave up their jewels for the sake of the Fatherland. Hoch to them and to all other patriotic souls!

Chats on Old Jewellery

Tagged as: Alexander Castellani, antique, Blitznitsi, cameos, Chats on Old Jewellery, Combs, Empire, jewelry, Mademoiselle Mars, Nineteenth Century, Tumuli