MODERN JEWELLERY 1851-1900.—In 1851 the wealth of European countries was rapidly increasing. Rich families had sprung up amongst the middle-class, and the nobility too had benefited by the rise of the industrial era. The jewellery made on the occasion of the Emperor Napoleon M.'s marriage was on a scale worthy of the most brilliant courts that France had known. The most precious stones were used, diamonds, pearls, sapphires and emeralds, in silver and gold settings. The base of the mountings was still in gold, but the front was made of silver, brilliantly polished in order to detract as little as possible from the diamonds them selves. The Empress Eugenie and Princess Mathilde revived the fashion of wearing strings of pearls in the evening. Large brace lets were also worn, mainly made of diamonds on a background of enamelled or engraved gold. Diadems were worn, curved to fit closely to the shape of the head.
When the brilliant court of Empress Eugenie was dispersed in 187o, inspiration and taste seemed momentarily to have deserted the French jewellers. Jewels were plentiful because the country was getting rich and the diamonds were more easily obtainable on account of the opening of the mines in South Africa. The jewellers turned to the choice of good stones and the manufac ture of settings that would show off their beauty, but the designs, continually repeated, were generally poor.
The most characteristic jewels of this period were brooches and head ornaments made in the shape of crescents or stars, or with a bowknot design, and necklaces made of a succession of single stones, called rivieres. The improvement in the settings which had taken place in the reign of Napoleon III. was due to a large extent to the fact that more liberal prices were paid to the working jewellers instead of the strict tariff which had been applied before. Something of the same kind also took place with regard to stones about 1878. A new class of pur chasers came to Europe from South America and later North America, who were willing to pay very large sums for stones of exceptional size and quality. Whilst size had been the main attraction in the previous collections pearls were now chosen for their quality. Valuable stones were mounted and worn as rings, bracelets, earrings (mostly single diamonds called solitaires or large round pearls hanging from a small diamond), hairpins, feathers, or pendants. Gold jewellery having been replaced mostly
by diamond jewellery, chiselled gold work was confined mainly to powder boxes, card cases, umbrella handles and handbags.
1900-1914.—The beginning of the loth century marks a re action against the monotony and lack of imagination of the style prevalent in jewellery since 187o. This reaction showed itself in two very different ways : (I) A number of jewellers favoured an idealistic interpretation of nature without any connection with past styles, which took the name of new art. This branch of the modernists attracted considerable attention at the 1900 "International Exhibition" in Paris. Their novelty lay not only in the designs, but in the choice of material—translucid enamels, ivory, horn. The beauty of the jewel was to come from the perfection of the artistic conception ; the value of the precious stones employed was of less importance than their appropri ateness to the scheme. Outside France, the new art in jewel lery appealed principally to Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia.
(2) In all countries, however, a larger section of the public favoured the other group of jewellers who, reacting against the soulless repetition of washed-out classic designs, turned back for inspiration to the old styles at their best periods.
As a reaction against the use of a relatively uniform scale of stones which gave jewels a heavy effect, small diamonds were used together and in contrast with the large stones they were to accompany. The diamonds were set in platinum instead of gold and silver. Platinum had been used experimentally since the 18th century, but it was only in 190o that it started to be used exclusively in the setting of diamonds and found favour on account of its brightness and its superior hardness, which per mitted of considerably lighter settings. As the new settings reduced the diamond to its proper size, the jewellers had to use larger diamonds than they had in the old settings which had made the stone appear larger than it actually was. All the jewels be came more brilliant and more costly. Another change was that bracelets, worn in the preceding period in the shape of rigid and tightfitting bangles, were now made supple and loose.