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Knowledge
The Georgian era encompassed the reigns of the five kings of the United Kingdom descended from the House of Hanover, which included George I, George II, George III, George IV, and often William IV, younger brother of George IV. This turbulent period of history is defined by both innovation, revolution, and societal change.
Design Period
An Era of Development
Fahrenheit invents his mercury thermometer. Handel premiers his ‘Messiah’ and Beethoven writes his first symphony. Diderot begins work on his exhaustive Encyclopedie. The Montgolfier brothers leave the earth in a balloon, becoming the first humans to do so and the steam engine was invented, breaking ground for the Industrial Revolution. Uranus is discovered, as is Uranium, and the smallpox vaccine. The battery is invented and the first photographic image is made.
Meanwhile, mutiny is in the air. The French revolution erupts the same year that Masters Mate Fletcher Christian wrests authority from Lieutenant William Bligh, and takes command of HMS Bounty. The American revolution ends in the election of George Washington becoming the first American president.
Despite the rapid progress of history in this period, it was human passions of the period most affecting the jewellery trade, with Georgian jewels being balanced, symmetrical, regal and elegant.
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Techniques and Materials seen in Georgian Jewellery
Crafted predominantly from gold and silver, Georgian jewels typically feature closed back and cut-down settings and many pieces were routinely remounted to keep abreast of current fashions. Closed settings had coloured foil backing to emphasise the colourful hues of gemstones and the bright sparkle of diamonds. Towards the end of the era this technique gradually lost its appeal in favour of new open mounts that were letting light through to enhance the natural brilliance of fine gems.
Because years of turbulence had depleted resources, jewellers had to do much with little to make it appear more than the sum of its parts. Semi-precious stones were clustered to enhance their richness and coral gained such popularity that it was absolutely ‘de rigeur’ for women of fashion to own parures made from this organic gemstone.
An alternative metal, pinchbeck, was an 18th century alloy of copper and zinc which was invented by Christopher Pinchbeck. Resembling gold, it wore well and maintained its colour and is very collectable today, not for its material value, but for its antiquity. Cannetille, an open coiled wirework technique, was especially popular in the first half of the nineteenth century, with red, yellow and green gold combined for new effects.
Painted enamels came out, mounted on gold and embellished with gems and decorative reliefs. Special enamelling processes such as champlevé and guilloché found great favour with the public.
Inspirations Behind Georgian Jewels
After the French Revolution, jewellery reflected the Ancien Regime. Most jewellery was leaving France by fleeing aristocrats selling it to survive and other treasures including the Crown Jewels were confiscated and some dismantled. When the Terror ended and the Directorate took over, France gradually regained its stability. Luxury items resurfaced and the jewellery trade revived.
Emulating Antiquity
A new dawn saw a Greek revival and a love of Roman antiquities that harkened back to former times of culture and order, with women even wearing empire line dresses that idealised the female form as seen in Greco-Roman statues. Springtime colours of white, yellow, lilac and green were suggestive of rebirth and jewellery was worn to enhance this imagery.
Rings were worn on every finger; simple gold bands decorated wrists, forearms and the upper arms. Neo-Classical and Roman inspired hairstyles brought with them the popularity of pendant earrings cut from thin sheets of gold with two to three gold links of flat geometrical design shaped as lozenges, shields or acanthus leaves. Napoleon bought some new crown jewels back to France and redesigned others to reflect these new fashions.
Cameos and Intaglios from Italy celebrated Napoleon’s campaigns and Parisian jewellers set them in precious stones and metals, putting them in tiaras, necklaces, bracelets and earrings mounted in simple gold collets with seed pearl borders joined by light, delicate gold chains. Despite Paris's best efforts, the greatest cameos still came out of Italy, signed by such famed designers of the times as Pistrucci and Girometti. Meanwhile, the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt introduced into jewellery design sphinxes, pyramids, palms and papyrus leaves.
Naturalistic Forms
Sometime after 1820 Naturalism returned with motifs such as roses, morning glories, fuchsias, cornflowers, ears of wheat and leaves of countless varieties seen in jewelled form.
Larger stones, clusters of gems and ribbon style bows supported by pear-shaped drops were the favoured motifs and the ever-popular brooch surfaced in sprays of foliage, starbursts, crescents, and baskets of flowers.
Types of Jewellery
Rings were plentiful and worn almost constantly. Most were seen as half hoops set with a single or a double row of gemstones with shanks of soldered gold wires and foliate designs that formed the shoulders. Gem-set navettes were common, as were large gemstones surrounded by clusters of gems and diamonds in a floral style.
Tiaras were designed in a myriad of ways; as diamond-set laurel leaves or wreaths, openwork designs with suspended briolettes, and a Hellenistic version rising to a gable point at the centre of the brow and sloping downwards. The Bandeau, a version of the tiara, displayed gem-set clusters or cameos worn on the forehead. Combs had decorated rectangular mounts, often as filigree galleries surmounted by carved coral or amber beads, while Spanish combs came with metal or tortoiseshell prongs and surmounts of gems, cameos, or gold scrollwork.
Earrings were made à poissarde, in geometrical patterns set with gems, but also as dangling pendants and elegant, gem-encrusted girandoles. Necklaces were gold chains of cameos, intaglios, and Roman mosaics. They also held gems or seed pearls set in light, delicate gold work. Pendants, usually worn en suite, were mostly seen as Maltese crosses or a cruciform embellished in precious stones.
Bracelets were worn in great numbers and included wide ribbons of gold mesh. Bracelets consisting of a silk ribbon with a gold clasp were called à la Jeannette. Brooches were a particularly favoured item, crafted in the form of sunbursts, stars and crescents. Formal and spiky sprays of gems, and simple flower head brooches were also popular.
Bringing all these together were parures, seen almost everywhere. These were found in precious and semi-precious stones, usually mounted in extremely fine cannetille settings that imitated fine lace enriched with leaf, rosette and burr motifs. Parures were especially popular because fashion dictated that jewellery be worn in abundance. Gems, or at least articles of gold, had to be dripping everywhere and in every form. Leaves, flowers and scrolls stamped from gold leaf seemed to decorate everything.
Jewellery encompassed many more items in the Georgian era than it does today, with some of these pieces ubiquitous during this period. Small buckles were worn at the centre of a belt or a ribbon and marked the high waistline. Tie pins were frequently worn, and no gentleman of prestige was without his seal. Commonly seen were family crests or coats-of-arms engraved in bloodstone, cornelian, citrine, quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, or chalcedony set in gold.
Georgian jewellery at Berganza
At Berganza, our collection of original Georgian jewellery encompasses rings, brooches, chains, pendants and more! With each piece displaying fine craftsmanship and quintessential Georgian techniques, invest in a unique jewel today.
The Georgian age ended with the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne, who would usher in a new era of jewellery, which would become a golden age of English craftsmanship.
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