Continued from: The Victorian Era: Design, Art, Silver and Jewelry Part II
Victorian Period Jewelry Design
The most notable jewelry designer of the Victorian Era was undoubtedly Carlo Giuliano, an Italian craftsman who worked in Britain at the time. His remarkable jewels were heavily influenced by the revivalist style of the epoch and presented illustrious ensembles of gold and colorful gemstones. He invented the famous candy-twist enameled baton link, which remained popular throughout the 20th century. The jewelry masterpieces of Giuliano were sold trough established companies at the time such as Hancocks and Phillips and were popular with aristocrats and even the Royal family. The Castellani jewelry designers produced remarkable works inspired by the ancient world in line with the aspirations of the Victorian Era. Famous artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement such as Charles Robert Ashbee with his fine silver designs and Nelson Dawson also produced fine Victorian jewelry. In the United States Charles Lewis Tiffany founded Tiffany & Co. in 1837, which marked the beginning of a unique and spectacular jewelry style that was to conquer the world later.
Decorating the Victorian Home
The decoration of the homes with fine objects was the main trend in interior design during the Victorian Era. This made silverware of all types particularly popular with the precious metal highlighting the stature of the owners. The fine Victorian silverware pieces such as tea and coffee sets, as well as dinner and dessert sets and flatware were on display in the parlors and dining rooms of the houses to be admired by the guests and to present the position of the hosts in society. With the abundant supply of the precious metal, other non-decorative objects that had a functional purpose in the household such as kitchen baskets and jars and even broom stick handles were often made of silver. Although the Victorian Era proclaimed propriety and simplicity when it came to the personal comfort in the rooms, the fashionable decorative silver items in boudoirs and cabinets remained widely used. Silver jewelry boxes and hair brushes plated with ornate silver were extremely popular. The ink sets and paper knifes were predominantly used by the gentlemen in their business or artistic writing works, which was popular especially during Romanticism.
Sterling Silver Gains Popularity
With the discovery of many new silver sources and the industrialization, the mass production of silver decorative objects began and soon became a constantly expanding industry. The higher supply and the reduced prices coincided with an increased demand from the middle class, which was growing largely and becoming much wealthier during the period. The Great Exhibition in 1851 offered its visitors the widest and most various display of silver works during the Victorian Era. The most innovative and remarkable designs were presented by manufacturers from all over the world. The reformist views against the silverware mass production were already abundant by that time and the Arts and Crafts Movement designers turned to the traditional handicrafts to create some of the most remarkable silver pieces of the period. Despite the wide spread admiration and the high artistic and cultural value of the hand crafted silverware, it did not succeed in replacing the less expensive and more technically perfect pieces produced with the use of machines. However, the ingenious designs of artists became employed in mass production.
Victorian Silversmiths and Designers, Eclectic Styles
The eclectic Victorian style was particularly evident in the works of silversmiths and designers. In the early years of the period the curvilinear Rococo forms were used to highlight the elegance and exquisiteness of plates, tea and coffee pots and cups. The motifs were elaborate and impressive in terms of the level of detail and their miniature size. The style of the ornaments was inspired by the Rococo and Romanticism at the same time. The flower and leaf as well as shell and vine motifs were dominant in the silverware decoration. Other forms influenced by the Celtic culture and arts such as the shamrocks were also trendy and greatly admired.
A Revival of Historical Styles During the Victorian Era
The historic styles revival increased the influence of the Gothic, Renaissance and Neo-Classical designs on the works of the silversmiths during a great part of the Victorian Era. The forms became more geometrical, longer and more robust expressing the splendor and reflective nature of Gothic art. The decorative motifs were mainly mystical twisted elements with the typical Goth pinnacles, although the floral ornaments were not completely abandoned. The classical designs with their universal forms and sweeping curves were also widely admired with the decorative flower and leaf motifs becoming more stylized. The more simplistic, yet impressive silver designs were prefect for the large mass production during the period, which made them wide spread.
Victorian Sterling Silver Designs
The works of the silversmiths of the Victorian Era Arts and Crafts Movement had unique imaginative silver designs, in which the creativity and personal view towards the artistic expression of the craftsman were evident. The forms were widely ranging with the lines again becoming curvilinear, but more dynamic and sometimes even asymmetrical. The craftsmen admiration for the Japanese technique and fascination with everything naturalistic and organic was very influential and the forms of cups and bowls closely resembled opening blooms and plant stables in a simplistic fashion. Simultaneously the complexity and detail of the ornaments was completely abandoned to give way to the more austere motifs. The use of semi-precious stones and stained glass tiles for the decoration of plates and goblets was very popular with the handicraft designers during the period. The mystical and naturalistic body motifs became characteristic for the silver works such as vases during the last years of the Victorian Era when the high morality was replaced by modern liberation from the traditional norms.
The partnership of Gothic revivalist A. W. N. Pugin and John Hardman led to the manufacturing of a medieval style silverware collection that became widely popular in the early years of the Victorian Era. The inspiration from the clean and spiritual forms was also widely present in the silver works of François Désiré Froment-Meurice and Jean Valentin Morel in France. The Arts and Crafts Movement most famous silversmith is Charles Robert Ashbee with his remarkable handmade silver decorative pieces such as goblets and teapots. The works of Gilbert Bayes were outstanding with their splendid silver decorative ornaments. Christopher Dresser set the benchmark for the silver designers in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods with his exceptional geometrical designs, whose exquisiteness and elegance was inspired by the Asian and Oriental arts.
Pottery Designs
The traditional pottery designs underwent a significant style change during the Victorian Era. The importance of the decorative objects in the homes grew immensely and ceramic items such as vases and plates were used primarily for display in the parlors, dining rooms and cabinets rather than serving any functional purpose. Even the dining, tea and coffee ceramic sets were designed to impress and suggest stature. The porcelain tiles became an essential part of interior design, which made their paining with decorative ornaments a creative craft on its own. The aesthetic style, which was particularly influential throughout the second half of the Victorian Era, became widely popular with the both the traditional craftsmen and mass manufacturers of pottery. Designers successfully complemented the practical purpose of the earthenware and ceramic items with an artistic decoration, which allowed them to utilize their individual creative approach.
Medieval Art in Victorian Pottery and Porcelain
The fascination with the medieval art forms was evident in the works of the Victorian pottery craftsmen, which became more linear and clean-cut with the reflective simplicity of the shapes being the main focus. The natural and stylized forms were also popular with designers, who drew their inspiration from the ancient art works as well as from the Oriental and East Asian pottery making traditions. The Japanese ceramic style with its gentle and elegant forms that combined splendor and simplicity in terms of ornamentation were also particularly influential to the craftsmen during the Victorian Era. The decoration of the ceramic pieces remained significantly important as it allowed for the artists imagination to be fully employed. The techniques and approaches varied widely, but the old English pottery tradition of slip decoration remained popular. The painting of the ceramics was also trendy during the time, which allowed for a further artistic expression and a remarkable use of color. The ornamental motifs were deeply symbolical in accordance with the influential Japanese art designs. The organic elements of the decoration retained their significance with the floral blossom and leaf ornaments being successfully combined with branch, bird and insect (butterfly and dragonfly) motifs to create a vibrant and impressive ensemble. The colors of the pottery works were also widely varying, but the warm and bright organic and earth ones were generally preferred. The combination of the colors to create a decorative ensemble was primarily a variation of a single color such as red and its scarlet and dark orange variations. The blue and green being natural colors and their pastel variations were also used widely with the yellow, beige and cream small ornaments gently complimenting them. Some more innovative pottery makers experimented significantly with their designs creating straight geometrical shapes and ornamental forms. The glazing techniques they used created bolder and shaper colors that provided a remarkable vibrancy and dynamics to the ceramic pieces they crafted.
Renowned Victorian Pottery Makers
The most renowned pottery maker in Britain during the Victorian Era was William de Morgan, whose remarkable works are among the finest masterpieces of ceramics from the period. The innovatively styled painted pottery pieces made by Theodore Deck in cooperation with artists Félix Bracquemond and Eléonore Escallier were also widely admired by the Victorian contemporaries. One of the leading artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement Christopher Dresser together with fellow designer Henry Tooth founded the Linthorpe Pottery in 1879, which produced some of the most aesthetic and exceptional ceramic works at the time that were influenced by the Japanese and emerging Art Nouveau style. Minton & Co. along with the Royal Worcester Porcelain factory were also leaders in pottery production throughout the period with their unique Anglo-Japanese styled ceramics that became influential for the later works of designers in different spheres of the decorative arts.
Victorian Cultural and Art Heritage
The cultural and art heritage from the Victorian Era is abundant not only in Britain, but throughout the whole world. Various collections of paintings, sculptures, decorative objects, furniture, jewelry, silverware and pottery are on display in museums in different countries. The most notable of these institutions is the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which was founded under the patronage of the Royal Family in 1852. Its exhibitions include some of the most remarkable masterpieces of the time from all over the world as well as later modern works that were influenced by the style of the period. Antique items from the Victorian Era that present a great value to private collectors and admirers of the art designs can be purchased freely on the every growing antique market.
