Jewellery Information

• The History of Jewellery

  • Metalwork Techniques
  • Jewels of the ancient world
• Indian Jewellery
• Egyptian Jewellery
• Victorian Jewellery
• Benefit to learn Jewellery Making
• Basic processes to make Jewellery:
• Hallmarking
• How To Start your Own Jewellry Trading
• Jewellery Buyer's Guide
• Jewellery Care

Metalwork Techniques:
The idea of gold nuggets is to some extent a myth they do exist nuggets weighing upto 160 lb have been recorded – but this is the exception rather than the rule for the most part gold has to be extracted laboriously in tiny quantities form metal bearing quartz or by the collection of Alluvial gold washed into river beds from the mother code by centuries of erosion. Tons of quartz has to be crushed or sand rifted to yield no more than a handful of gold speaks. The process annealing must have been the first major technical discovery to be made by the goldsmiths of the Ancient world.

Soldering:
The range of objects which could be made from a single sheet of metal was considerable, but there a time arrived when two or more pieces of metal had to be joined together. Before, soldering could beachieved satisfactorily; the problem of oxidation had to be overcome and through there is no mentionof the substance in any ancient writings. We can only presume that they used some form of flux. Whengold is approaching melting point develops a skin of oxide which interferes with the flow and adhesion ofthe solder.The surface is to be soldered therefore must be coated with the flux, which acts as a barrier from the air, not only preventing oxidation, but also guiding the solder into the joint since this is the onlyarea which will readily receive it. What material was used in the ancient world is impossible to say but itmust have similar properties to borax, which is used by contemporary craftsman.

Stamping:
Stamping marks the introduction of the concept of mass production to the world of jewellery. This technique appears to have evolved almost simultaneously with that of repose despite the considerably advanced degree of technical skill required for tool making. Some craftsman preferred to work in reverse in which case the design would be carved in reverse on the face of a bronze tool, the gold sheet laid on top covered by a thick sheet of lead and the design hammered out. This was in fact a primitive form of the die stamping widely used today.

Filigree and Granulation:
Soon after they had discovered the art of soldering, goldsmiths started to decorate the surface of their work with patterns of wire and granules. The production of wire for filigree work without machinery must have presented ancient craftsman with a lot of problems. There are various theories about the method of production, but it is generally agreed that the first step was to cut narrow strips of gold from a sheet with a chisel.

However, it was produced the existence of wire offered enormous scope for decorative patterns with a simple pair of bronze tweezers, the craftsmen could produce spirals, loops and wavy lines which could be soldered onto the face of the work. Two or more wires could be twisted together, which in twin became more complex designs. To add variety to this filigree work designers incorporated domes or spheres. These were originally quite large and produced as hollow domes punched out of this gold sheet and trimmed to size but as work became more complex and the component parts smaller. This method proved too time consuming, so solid spheres were used instead. This was the start of granulation, the most amazing of all the technical achievements of the craftsmen of the Ancient world. Granulation was in use in the 3rd millennium BC, but the granules used were large and the work comparatively crude. It was the Etruscans in the period 700 – 600 BC, who perfected the technique and produced work which puzzled craftsmen and metallurgists for centuries. So minute were the granules used some measuring less than 1/200th of an inch, that they look more like matt bloom on the work than a collection of granules.

Inlay:
One of the earliest and most popular methods used to incorporate stones was inlay. The first thing required of the setting was that it should hold the stone firmly in position and the second that it should protect it from knocks and abrasion.

Another popular substitute, developed in the Egyptian Middle Kingdom was frit, the earliest known form of glass. It was similar in composition to modern glass but with a slightly lower proportion of silica and lime. Much of the frit produced is opaque and would suggest that is raison diameter was a gemstone substitute rather than an entity itself.

Enamelling:
The earliest enamelling technique known as Cloisonné enamel was identical to inlay but used molten glass rather than individually cut stones. Then the Champleve technique was developed in which the design was cut into the surface of the metal and the recesses filled with molten glass.

Later more sophisticated techniques were used allowing continuous tone pictorial decoration unpacked stained glass effects and polychromatic decoration in three dimensions or relief.

Jewels of the Ancient world:                                                                           || TOP ||
When discussing the history of jewellery we are continuously handicapped by the lack of specimens available. Without the discoveries of late 19th & 20th archaeologists, such discussion could be no more than speculation. The intrinsic value of gold and the changing fashion have been the worst names of the jewellery historian. Gold melts easily cannot be identified is conveniently transportable and an international currency.

The 13th Century:
Throughout the early middle ages royal and religious patronage became increasingly exclusive and this was a situation which was consolidated towards the end of the 13th century. When a law was passed in France forbidding commoners to wear precious stones, pearls & belts otherwise circlets of gold & silver. For the first time in Western Europe, jewellery became an official privilege of the privileged.

The 13th and early 14th centuries were the years of great Royal Jewels and in particular great crowns and coronets. Royal inventories form one of the best sources of information as to the forms of jewellery work throughout the Middle Ages. A list of jewels belonging to Blanche of Castle in the early 13th century included several crowns set with rubies, emeralds, sapphires and pearls. Broaches set with rubies, sapphires, emeralds and other precious stones. One of the most beautiful crowns of the 13th century was that worn by Richard, rare of Cornwall, at his coronation as King of the Romans.

The 15th Century:
By the first decade of the 15th century, the Dukedom of Burgundy had become enormously wealthy and Philip the good was to emerge as the greatest patron of the jewellers art in the Middle Ages. Stones and precious metals were imported in even greater quantities and the workshops of the Rhine experienced a new freedom which had a profound effect on the jewels produced until the end of the Middle Ages. The Gothic architectural style continued to influence all branches of the arts and the effect on the form of jewels is even more obvious than it had been in the previous century. The finest single piece from this period is the crown of Princess Blanche which was worn by her at the age of ten, when she was formally married to the Elector Ledwig III in 1402. The pinnacles are set with emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, pearls and rubies, some facet cut others in cabochon human had been wearing smaller versions of male crown for several centuries but Princess Blanches crown has a delicacy which suggests that it was designed specifically with a young girl in mind.

Towards the end of the century, it is the transitional period between the gothic and renaissance fashionable clothes became tighter and items of supplemented with precious stones.

The 16th Century:
Renaissance is a word frequently used without any real knowledge of the period it covers. In recent years it has become fashionable to play down the prestige of this particular rebirth and write it off as the culmination of the artistic traditions of the Middle Ages combined with foretaste of the baroque magnificence to come of the 17th Century. More than a thousand years had elapsed since the collapse of the Roman Empire and it is not surprising that the Italians looked back with longing at the magnificence of their past surrounded as they were with tangible evidence great architecture, engineering, philosophy & art.

The early jewellery of the Renaissance therefore was influenced more by the new sculpture and painting than by its classical origins. This influence is understandable as the jewellers workshop was considered to be the first training ground for those wishing to progress to the major arts. The greatest of these was produced by Virgil Solis, an engraver, containing page after page of designs for all types of jewellery, were widely circulated and adopted by lesser craftsmen throughout Western Europe, and included designs for belt-buckles, chains & pendants. One of these pendants is a prototype for a design which became widely popular throughout the high Renaissance. It is pear shaped with two large Cabochon stones set in raised claw settings, with two figures setting on the lower stone and supporting the upper below the pendant are suspended three baroque pearls, a feature which is common to many late 16th Century pendants. Other pendants designed by Solis have a religious overtone being formed as crosses set with Cabochon Stones with foliage and tiny cherubs.

The 17th Century:
Like so many of the terms chosen to describe a period of art history baroque was originally a term of disagreement. The term was introduced by critics of the 18th Century to describe the art and architecture of the 17th Century which they considered to be vulgar & self indulgent. The whole of Western Europe was racked with war and political upheaval for the first half of the century. The thirty years had the continent of Europe in turmoil and the civil war raged in England from 1642 to 1646. It is understandable therefore that the amount of jewellery produced was considerably limited both for the impoverished royal houses and the private sector. The other major influence was the introduction of facet cut stones. Cardinal Mazarin, a senior minister at the Court of Louis XIV sponsored a number of Lapidaries to develop the rose cut, emeralds, topaz and sapphires were all popular but it was diamonds that really caught the patrons imagination.

The 18th Century:
If there was ever a century of change & contrast, it was the 18th Century at the outset there was as great division between the rich & poor as had ever been experienced by the end. The great industrial revolution had led to the emergence of a new middle class. Diamonds proved their worth and were used to the almost total exclusion of other stones until the 1750’s. At the turn of the 17th Century the brilliant cut had made even more capital from the diamonds remarkable optical qualities than the Mazarin cut. For this the stone was cut with 57 facets instead of the 16 of the Mazarin and exploited the reflective & refractive properties of diamonds to a far greater extent than ever before. The increased brilliance was considerable and the cut has never been bettered to this day. So far the first time, different jewellery was designed for wear during the day and night time. During the second half of the century, open back settings were introduced to allow more light into the stones. Again the pave setting was favoured for smaller stones.

Symmetrical floral designs and the bow theme continued to be popular until about 1740 when the rococo fashion temporarily favoured the asymmetrical and reintroduced the love of colour. One particularly fine brooch made in Spain about 1770 depicts a spray of flowers. The interpretation is much more naturalistic and fluid leaves and items are enameled and held at the base with an enameled gold bow pave set with diamonds and the petals of each flower are also set with small diamonds. This piece has both realism and a charming elegance which typifies the influence from the major arts of an influence soon to be curtailed by a renamed interest in classicism.

Steel Jewellery:   
The very word steel smacks of the Industrial Revolution and indeed cut steel jewellery, which started early in the 18th Century, survived for more than 150 years unlike pinchbeck it substituted for both stones and metal. Perhaps the inspiration came from the vogue for marc sites which were being widely used as a substitute for diamonds. Steel workers traditionally producing swords and boxes realized that steel cut in facets could achieve the same metallic gleam. Steel jewellery became fashionable in France and a shop opened in Paris by Monsieur Granchez Marie Antoinette’s jeweller was reported in 1760 to have been selling steel jewellery which was made expensive than gold.

As in precious jewellery the floral theme remained dominant throughout the century and even the rococo asymmetry was adopted by the steel cutters when it became fashionable.

The 20th Century:
During the last decade of the 19th Century, the craze for Art. Now we are was supplemented by 18th Century style diamond jewellery produced by the great jewel houses of the west. By 1910 their scope was considerable widened by the use of platinum which rapidly replaced silver for diamond setting. Unlike silver, the new metal did not tarnish and because of its greater strength reduced the amount of metal required to hold a stone securely. Stones, ribbons and bows were favoured themes for this Edwardian Diamond Jewellery which for the first time was designed specifically for day time wear and under electric light which was now an automatic requirement for those who might afford such jewels. Pure geometric jewels were now produced, simple studied compositions of squares, oblongs and circles.

Semi precious and non precious materials were introduced whose value to the jeweller was not commercial but their ability to provide the controls needed to complete compositions. Pave-set diamonds were arranged in geometric patterns in onyx or black enamel and laid alongside poised slabs of Platinum or Gold.

Indian Jewellery: (Read more...)                                                                    ||TOP ||

Egyption Jewellery:                                                                                           ||TOP ||

The first used of the arts of metallurgy, gem cutting and the use of color jewellery were used by the people of Southeast Asia and Indian Subcontinent,

In 3000 BC, the wearing of jewellery was entirely restricted to the pharaohs and their families. In ancient times, Egyptians knew silver before gold, and they know it as a white gold. Aton was the favorite in the metal of the sun, the planet personified by their chief day. The tombs that have survived intact together with colored statutory and moral paintings form the most valuable sources of our knowledge of the forms and techniques used in making of the precious ornaments in ancient Egypt.

A rare find from the epoch of the Old Kingdom, which lasted from the third to the seventh dynasty, was the tomb of queen Hetepheres-I, near the Giza pyramid. In tomb were found all the furnishings which, according to religious beliefs, would provide for the comfort of the deceased in the afterlife and be worthy of her lineage. The bed, the throne and a litter are extensively embellished with solid gold repose work and gold leaf encrusted with precious stones. Among the jewellery there were silver, turquoise, lapis lazuli and carnelians.

In 25 to 21 Century BC, gold was so much more plentiful than silver, which is assumed as a superior value to gold. Today, a silver belt which is belonged to a prince which is now it is found in the Egyptian museum in Cairo. Today this belt is decorated with turquoises, lapis, lazuli, cornelian, pearls and beads of red & black stone.

The motifs used in Egyptian jewellery are mostly either figures of gods, planets or any symbolic abstract forms. In King& Queen’s ornaments the hawk, vulture & cobra are most frequently objects. The form of a cobra usually rises from the centre of the pharaoh’s mitre while a gold vulture encrusted with gems would cover a queen’s head dress with its broad wings.
 

VICTORIAN JEWELLERY:                                                                                  || TOP ||

Introduction:
Jewellery reflects every form of decoration, taste and circumstances of period. The age of Queen Victoria increasing the reign of prosperity in progress, it was accordingly to be expected that during such a time a great quantity of jewellery should be made and worn that jewellery should as never before, subject to rapid changes in fashion and that the consequent variety of styles should appeal to a competitive society in which new wealthy families were constantly arising all convinced that the latest thing must be the best.

The end of the century jewellery was regarded as an essential part of the dress of women of the upper and middle classes. Coral, ivory and semi precious materials were they considered, suitable for morning wear, but gold and precious stones were to for more formal dress.

Mr. Quentin Bell has pointed out that fashionable change take place only is a society which itself is changing and in which more than one class can afford the luxury of sumptuous dress. These conditions were fulfilled in Victorian England and consequently new styles of jewellery were quickly adopted by the upper and middle classes. As a result, the production of jewellery was divided into two parts during this era.

1. Primary Jewellery - Precious Stones and Precious Metals.
2. Secondary Jewellery - All Semi Precious Ornaments

Today’s costume jewellery is equivalent to the ancient jewellery of novelty. But this type of jewellery is quickly out of fashion.

Another type of ornament during the Victorians is Folk Jewellery in traditional designs, which was very popular and the fashion was largely brought about by the Queen’s fondness for Scotland.

THE EARLY VICTORIAN PERIOD:

Queen Victoria came to the throne during the full flowering of the Romantic moment.

The French designers spread to England. Philips, most renowned of the English mid century designers named Robert Philips, was certainly affected by their work. It also showed the tendency to return to the Middle Ages.

Serpent was another motif from the world which was very popular with the romantics. In her first council meeting, Victoria wore a serpent bracelet and a serpent ring. In 19th century during the days of Romans early Victorian and serpents are particularly very charming with emeralds. Though serpents have been used for rings and bracelets. Since the days of the Romans and continued to be used throughout the nineteenth century. These early Victorian serpents are particularly charming.

North African & Assyrian are the other two influences on the jewellery of the period. The favorite shape for a brooch is Algerian and for the hair Peigne d Alger was fashionable.

Victoria worn much of the coral jewellery which was came from Naples or Genoa but one English Jeweller was famous for his work in coral. For giving more massive effect in the jewellery Cabochon stones were used. Sometimes in conjunction with rains or waterfalls as in the corsage ornament and sometimes simply framed with pearls or diamonds.

There are two kinds of Cameos, the first being Gem Cameos in which a design is cut in relief on a stone, and the second being their imitations, carried on shells or cut or moulded in glass or paste. They had three periods of great popularity in classical times, in the Renaissance and in the late eighteenth and nineteenth Centuries. Queen Victoria was found of Cameo Jewellery and her approval helped to preserve its popularity during her reign.

THE MID VICTORIAN PERIOD:

In 60’s & 70’s, Victorian Jewellery highly coloured stones worn. From 1860, there is a great change in jewellery. In comparison, with early Victorian women, Mid-Victorian women were emerging into fields of business and politics.

Rather than to create designs, we find most notably influence of Greek ornament in primary jewellery. We find a tremendous increase in the amount of imitation jewellery during secondary jewellery.

These accurate reproductions from the ancient world had a tremendous appeal for Mid-Victorian women who were seriously sort gave pleasure. We believe as much for their accuracy as for their beauty.

The interest of the fashionable gold will be spread less Etruscan and in Greek. Indian jewellery and its imitations became fashionable, when Queen assumed the title of Empress of India.

In 1879, Mrs. Haweis, who establish jewellery produced by machine, became so popular. Many women imagine that twenty machine made lockets in her jewellery.

The most transient was the Benoitan chain worn during the years 1865 – 70. This belongs really more to a discussion of costume than of jewellery for it was a chain worn in a particular way. It hung from the bonnet over the bosom instead of simply encircling the neck.

Only one point remains to the mentioned the short but intense fashion for amber necklaces which lasted from about 1878 to 1883. The vogue was a part of the Esthetic movement, which caused young ladies to sigh for the Middle Ages to wear straight gowns when the fashion was for ruffles and curves to trim their collars with yellowed lots of lace and as a crowning touch to wear a long string of amber beads.

LATE VICTORIAN PERIOD:

The Aesthetic period (Late Victorian Period) in jewellery came at a time of reaction against what had gone before in this changing world women were still trying to improve their position. They continued to work actively in politics in 1885. They founded the prim rose league. They redoubled their efforts to secure the right to vote.

The jewellery worn during these years, we should expect considerable difference from the style of the grand period. Aside from the revolution in taste, there was a change in the attitude of women towards the wearing of jewellery. In the Eighties to wear diamonds in the daytime was the height of bad taste.

The secondary jewellery showed the same fondness for the heart and the same appearance of fragility. Thin gold wires formed small open work pendants.

The jewellery of this period presents an appearance that can hardly be called Victorian. It seems to show a complete break with what had gone before and it certainly represents the beginning of Edwardian jewellery.  

BENEFITS TO LEARN JEWELLERY MAKING: (Read More)

BASIC PROCESSES TO MAKE JEWELLERY : (Read More)

HALLMARKING : (Read More)