Articles in Victorian Period
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.
The art forms of the Victorian designs were curvilinear and sweeping with the ornamentation being an essential part of the works. The Rococo S curves and the more stylized Neo-Classical forms were masterly complemented to create a distinct decorative design. The ornamental motifs were stylized in accordance with the traditional Gothic forms, but were still inspired by the natural world and its forms with the plants and flowers being primarily depicted. Colors and their role in the design became significant in Victorian art.
The Victorian era is given the general time frame of the 63-year reign of Queen Victoria in Britain from her coronation in June 1837 to her death in January 1901. The period is characterized by a remarkable social and political change that was accordingly reflected in the art forms and types as well.
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 …
New York greeted Field with wild rejoicing, and the city authorities set September 1, 1858, as a day of celebration to give him an official public ovation. The celebration surpassed anything the city had ever before witnessed. Then the mayor of New York gave an address honoring Mr. Field and presented him with a gold box …
Such things certainly form a very large part of the ornaments which appealed to Victorian taste, but also we find other classes of work which, while it never reaches a very high standard, yet has merits of its own.
