In Germany, great centres of the goldsmiths' art in the 16th century were Augsburg, Munich and Nuremberg. The Fuggers, the great bank ers of Augsburg, did much to encourage the production of fine jewelry, indeed they com bined dealing with precious stones and splendid jewels in a remarkably clever way with their banking business. Naturally the Italian in fluence was potent in these German cities, al though the striking and original work of such masters as Albrecht Direr and Hans Holbein, the former the son of a goldsmith, occupies a very high place in the history of jewelry. Hol bein's numerous designs, made in England, preserve for us a record of his excellence in the art.
To the 17th century belongs the reign of the aigrette, consisting of clusters of precious stones set in enameled gold and mounted on movable stalks; another favorite jewel of this century was the bow or rosette to be worn on the breast, named a sevigne, after the world famous letter writer, the Marquise de Sivigni. A splendid English jewel of the early part of this century is that known as the Jewel,' in the British Museum. It was a gift of James I to a Mr. Thomas Lyte, as a reward for the latter's zeal in drawing up a pedigree of the sovereign. An openwork cover has dia monds on the outside and brilliant enamel on the reverse, while on the back of the jewel is a white enameled plate on which is a design done in alternate lines of gold and of ruby enamel; the enamel bordering is of ruby-red and sap phire blue.
Toward the end of the 17th century, pen dants' are found made of gold only, and some specimens of Portuguese work are remarkable for delicacy of execution; these are sometimes set with very small diamonds. Sprays of leaves and flowers and knots of ribbon are made in metal during the 17th century, and are thickly set with crystals — paste or real precious stones — particularly by Venetian, French and Portuguese, followed at a safe dis tance by English workmen. The best of these are by Giles Legare, and in the 18th century by his follower, Pierre Bourdon.
The search for new styles of ornamentation led at the end of the 17th century to the de velopment of the variety of decoration and de sign to which the name °rococo° has been given, and this became gradually the dominant tend ency in the first half of the 18th century. Among the masters of this style in France may be noted Jean Bourget and Pierre Bourdon, and in Italy Gian Battista Grondoni and Carlo Ciampali. More potent, however, was the ac tivity of Melchior Dinglinger who, after work ing for a time at Augsburg, came to Dresden in 1702 at the invitation of Augustus II, sur named °The Elector of Saxony, and king of Poland as Augustus I, at whose court he was employed for 30 years as court jeweler, together with his brother, and with his son, Johann Melchior Dinglinger. The elector
availed himself of their services in planning and enriching the famous Green Vaults in Dresden, wherein is assembled a most remark able collection of the ornamental objects pro duced in this period. The discovery of the remains of Pompeii in 1755 gave a new direc tion to taste, and signaled the downfall of rococo and a revival of classic models. How ever, although much of the jewelry wrought by the goldsmiths of the first half of the 18th cen tury is too extravagant and eccentric in style to please a truly refined artistic appreciation, many single objects testify to the skill and technical ability of those who produced them.
In France, during the Directory, the aim of the ladies of fashion was to resemble as much as possible the statues of the Greek goddesses, and this led to a rejection of elaborate jewel ing. Indeed, many women discarded jewels almost entirely, and even the frail ladies popu larly called merveilleuses, who wore too many, wished them to be of very simple design, so that they might not detract from the effect pro duced by perfection of physical form. In 1800, when the Egyptian campaign was in everyone's mind, the dandies regarded it as the height of good taste to wear turbans a la Mameluck, adorned with scarabs, sphinxes and obelisks. At this time and through the First Empire pub lic taste was dominated in the matter of per sonal adornment by the painter David, and un fortunately his ideas in this respect were not on a level with his general artistic ability, for he was tyrannized over by the influence of classic tradition. The Restoration marked a decided reaction against the tendency to severity and rigidity generally characterizing the early part of the as to jewelry. In sympa thy with the later rise and triumph of Roman ticism in literature and painting, jewelers sought to create works of art at once striking and gracefuL The reaction against exclusively classic models brought about a revival of Gothic forms, which gained popular favor to a high degree. Still this was only an artificiality of another type, and it was reserved for the latter half of the 19th century to seek for in spiration directly in the realm of nature.