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F rom the delicate enameled bracelets of 19th century master Carlo Giuliano to the regal splendour of a Belle Époque tiara adorned with natural pearls, any piece of fine jewellery reflects the evolving aesthetics and craftsmanship of its own era. This curated trove from Magnificent Jewels I spans the late Victorian period through the turn of the century, showcasing jewels from across cultures and geography – from intricate Qing dynasty carved nephrite jade nail guards to rare early 19th century Tiffany & Co. creations. The Art Deco period comes alive through whimsical designs like a charming Cartier bracelet and a fine Janesich brooch from the 1920s, exemplifying the geometric forms and bold creativity of the time. These exquisite pieces not only represent the artistry from renowned jewellers but also serve as tangible links to the cultural and artistic movements that have shaped jewellery design over the past century and a half.
Jewels were historically a vital symbol of social rank. The end of the 17th century saw the development of the brilliant cut sparkling with its multiple facets. Baroque designs were overtaken in popularity by gem-centric designs with concealed metal settings, chief of which were diamonds, frequently mounted in silver to emphasise their dazzling whiteness. From around 1725, Brazilian diamonds were imported into Europe in large numbers, and diamonds became so sought after that imitations circulated. Few diamond pieces remain intact from this period; given their intrinsic value, many were later dismantled and reset into more up-to-date styles.
Magnificent sets of diamond jewels were essential for court life, with the largest worn on the bodice and smaller ones scattered over an outfit. Popular items of jewellery included wide choker necklaces with pendants that sat around the neck like a high collar, and stomacher brooches designed to be worn on the central panel of a dress bodice. The chatelaine, an ornate gold ornament designed to hang small articles such as watches, keys and purses, was particularly prominent in the 18th century, sometimes decorated with diamonds or cameos, the latter of which were popularised by the English pottery manufacturer, Josiah Wedgwood.
An eclectic range of historic styles seized the collective imagination in the 19th century – Gothic, Renaissance, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Rococo and Indian, amongst others – inspired by the archaeological discoveries of the period. Items such as a pair of Tiffany & Co. gold earrings in the ‘Cypriot’ style (lot X), a topaz intaglio diamond brooch (lot X), or an antique bracelet with enamel and zirconia (lot X) offered an orientalist aesthetic flair combined with byzantine opulence. Items such as a pair of nephrite jade nail guards (lot X) also stirred the popular imagination. Worn by members of the Chinese imperial court and the aristocracy, they were a symbol of status and wealth for women in the Ming and Qing dynasties whose impractically long and beautifully decorated nails contrasted with the short, plain nails of labourers and ordinary citizens.
Many of the most venerated jewellery firms of today were established in the 19th century, catering to the prosperous new bourgeois classes. The oldest was founded by Peter Carl Fabergé in St. Petersburg in 1870, taking over from the firm his father started in 1842. In 1898 Alfred Cartier and his son Louis founded a jewellery firm in Paris that became known for its fine settings and use of the most exquisite precious stones. By the beginning of the 20th century, Cartier would become the most famous jeweller in the world, supplying many of the European royal families. Across the Atlantic, the New Yorker Charles Lewis Tiffany began producing silverware that followed English “sterling” standards (92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent base metals) in 1851, and in 1886 unveiled the iconic “Tiffany” setting for diamonds. Tiffany & Co. diamond engagement rings became all the rage. Other notable names established in the 19th century included Van Cleef & Arpels in Paris (1896), Bulgari in Rome (1884), Asprey & Company in London, and Black, Starr & Frost in New York City (founded in 1810 as Marquand and Co.).
The founding of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited in 1888 had made diamonds more affordable and prompted the introduction of new gemstone cuts. A size-graduated old European cut diamond Riviere necklace (lot X) consisting of a string of 52 “flowing” linked diamonds (after the French for “river”) was a style originally popularised in the 18th century and which would remain popular until the present day.
The rise of the Art Nouveau (“New Art”) movement towards the end of the 19th century took place amidst the backdrop of the Belle Époque, the continental European “Golden Age” that preceded the outbreak of the First World War. Taking inspiration primarily from nature, Art Nouveau reacted strongly against the staid imitation of historical styles, instead leaned on radical anti-structural and asymmetrical elements and sinuous “whiplash” lines that mimicked organic forms such as plants and flowers. At the time, the prevailing emphasis in fine jewellery had been on creating dramatic settings for precious stones, particularly diamonds. Breaking from this, Art Nouveau prized elaborate design and chromatic effects, with the focus shifting from the prestige of materials to skilful craftsmanship and artistic vision. Art Nouveau masters like René Lalique (1860-1945) and Georges Fouquet (1862–1957) paired gold with humble materials such as horn, glass, jasper, amber and enamel. A wide variety of other semi-precious stones such as garnet, peridot, citrine, aquamarine, agate, opal, and moonstone began to feature in designs, whilst baroque pearls of irregular shape and colouring were prized over perfectly round ones
Stylised motifs modelled on natural subjects – flowers, animals, insects and birds – as well as fantasy female figures in the guise of fairies, sirens and sphinxes featured in the jewellery of René Lalique, Georges Fouquet, and Philippe Wolfers. These artist-designers did not limit themselves to one art form, instead channelling the Art Nouveau spirit of the gesamtkunstwerk (synthesis of the arts). Lalique, the most famous of the Art Nouveau designers, trained as a jeweller but worked across the arts, notably with glass. Fouquet collaborated with the famed painter Alphonse Mucha on special projects – a serpentine bracelet for Sarah Bernhardt, the “Cascade” pendant in the form of a waterfall – before asking him to design the interior of his new jewellery shop in Paris. Mucha himself published a book of Art Nouveau design, Documents Decoratifs (1902), featuring images of enamelled and stone-encrusted pieces of jewellery.
The Edwardian era spanned the reign of King Edward VII (r. 1901-1910) till the outbreak of the First World War. It was the British counterpart to the Belle Époque of continental Europe, a romantic golden age of the British Empire overseen by Edward VII, leader of a wealthy and fashionable elite who took their cues from the art and fashions of Europe. Edward’s love of beauty and frivolity extended to jewellery. Beginning with his 1902 coronation, he hosted spectacular society presentations, balls and soirées that demanded sumptuous displays of material wealth, which jewellers such as Cartier and Boucheron gladly stepped up to provide.
Cartier, already a household name by this time and soon the official jeweller to Edward, pioneered the use of platinum in jewellery design, creating the “white-on-white” look where diamonds mounted on an “invisible” platinum setting appeared to float on the skin or in the air. The strength of platinum allowed for more intricate, delicate designs, and Edwardian jewellery featured filigree work, millegrain details and lace-like patterns that articulated lighter, more feminine motifs such as bows, garlands and flowers. Bejewelled headpieces like tiaras and bandeaus, with or without feathered aigrettes, were also popular. With the easy availability of diamonds at the time, it was not uncommon to see Edwardian pieces feature several cuts in the same design, for example baguette and briolette diamonds.
Surprisingly, pearls were more rare than diamonds at the time, and thus represented an even more important signifier of wealth. Colliers de chien (“dog collars”), a popular piece of jewellery said to have been directly inspired by Edward’s consort, Queen Alexandra (who sought to conceal a scar on her neck), consisted of several strands of pearls strung closely together, or alternately a ribbon decorated with a brooch or gemstone.
Art Deco, short for Arts décoratifs (French for ”Decorative Arts”), was an international aesthetic movement that flourished in Europe and the United States between the 1920s and 1930s up until the onset of the Second World War. Named after the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, it leaned towards a minimal and radical new elegance with clean, geometric shapes and a startling variety of natural and synthetic materials such as Bakelite. Avant-garde artistic movements of the era such as Cubism and Futurism embraced the duality of tradition and modernity, and so did Art Deco, doing away with the intricate detailing of the past in favour of bold abstraction that looked forward to the dynamism of modern urban culture. Diamonds and precious stones were used sparingly, whilst jewellers experimented with metals such as chrome and steel and unusual stones such as coral, obsidian and rock crystal. This new liberated sensibility echoed changes in fashion, in particular the more streamlined, androgynous silhouettes championed by the likes of Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel that rejected the useless ornamentation of the past and allowed women to move more freely.
The Art Deco geometric style of design, known as the “style moderne”, is still much coveted today. Monochrome styles were highly sought after to show off new diamond cuts in geometric shapes: the baguette, asscher, emerald, triangle, trapeze, and half-moon cuts all became defining styles of the era, usually arranged in mosaic-like patterns alongside colourful gemstones. An all-white aesthetic became popular around the end of the 1920s. Combinations of diamonds and rock crystal – the latter called attention to the former’s brilliance – set in platinum highlighted the stark minimalism of Art Deco design. Platinum’s strength allowed it to be used in minimal quantities, giving the strong and simple forms of the stones the highest prominence.
Design houses such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels were at the forefront of the Art Deco movement: Cartier introduced its much-loved Tank watch in 1917 and the Italian-inspired Tutti Frutti line in the 1920s, whilst the 1930s saw Van Cleef & Arpels introduce its Passe-Partout range inspired by the tubogas, its famed “Mystery-set” (Serti Mystérieux) jewel setting where precious gemstones appeared to hover without a trace of metal or prongs, and its Minaudière vanity case, which became a jewel accessory in its own right. Other notable artist-jewellers of the Art Deco era include Raymond Templier, Jean Fouquet (son of Georges Fouquet), Janesich, Ostertag, René Boivin and Paul Brandt.
The privations of wartime and years of sombre austerity were replaced with exuberant mid-20th century displays of extravagant luxury. The elaborate style embodied by Christian Dior’s New Look collection heralded a joyful return to femininity.
“We were emerging from a time of war, of uniforms, and of women soldiers built like boxers. I designed flower-like women, with delicate shoulders, blossoming bosoms, narrow liana-like waists and skirts as wide as corollas.” – Christian Dior
A frenetic calendar of dinners, salons, cocktail parties and balls enthralled high society. Fabulous jewels were a natural accompaniment: after a passing craze for coloured gemstones, diamonds firmly re-established their position at the top of the hierarchy. De Beers, the world’s largest diamond company, launched the campaign “A diamond is forever” in 1948, which became one of the most recognised slogans in advertising and helped fuel a diamond jewellery resurgence.
The multi-purpose brooch became an indispensable accessory of every women’s wardrobe, along with the snake chain, which replaced the popular sautoir of the 1920s. Pearl chokers graced necks; wrists were adorned by sculpted bracelets of raised hexagonal or triangular segments; fingers were decked with opulent yet refined rings in evocative shapes – à pont, à livre ouvert, à noeud and à la turque.
However, platinum – though much admired during the Art Deco period – gave way in popularity to gold of every shade during the 1940s and 1950s. Playing with the chromatic effects of alloys by combining different proportions of gold, copper and silver, joailliers often combined several shades of gold within a single piece of jewellery, or else contrasted highly polished or satin surfaces, guillochage, plaiting, threading, pointillage, faceting, coiling, tapping, fluting, twisting, cannetille, resilla, ciselé work, and more. From 1939 onwards, the pursuit of ever-greater delicacy and lightness saw the perfection of gold filigree work, whereby thin strands of the precious metal were twisted and soldered onto metalwork. The Parisian joaillier Pierre Sterlé was one of the most important jewellery designers of his day, visited by socialites and royalty in his atelier near the Place Vendôme by appointment only. His ability to manipulate gold was unparalleled, with leaves that seemed to flutter and gemstone birds that appeared to fly. His diamond and platinum jewels were a triumph of design and engineering. Ribbons of round and baguette diamonds and swinging diamond tassels with a charming asymmetry provided both playfulness and glamour in equal spades.
The history of jewellery over the past century and a half is as intertwined with the histories of art, fashion and the world at large. As quickly as the world progressed, so too did jewellery designers evolve and adapt to the times. Now in the 21st century, tastes and styles continue to change and technology advances at ever faster paces; with that, jewellery design may well be on the cusp of yet another radical shift.
