jewelry

/jooh"euhl ree/, n.

1. articles of gold, silver, precious stones, etc., for personal adornment.

2. any ornaments for personal adornment, as necklaces or cuff links, including those of base metals, glass, plastic, or the like.

Also, esp. Brit., jewellery.

[1300-50; ME juelrie < AF juelerie, equiv. to juel JEWEL + -erie -ERY]

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Objects designed for the adornment of the body, usually made of gold, silver, or platinum, often with precious or semiprecious stones and such organic substances as pearls, coral, and amber.

Jewelry evolved from shells, animal teeth, and other objects used as adornment in prehistoric times. Over the centuries it came to be a sign of social or religious rank. In Renaissance Italy, jewelry making reached the status of a fine art; many Italian sculptors trained as goldsmiths. From the 17th century the decorative function of jewelry again came to the fore, overshadowing its symbolic significance. By the 19th century, industrialization brought jewelry within the reach of the middle class. Firms opened by jewelers such as Carl Fabergé and Louis Comfort Tiffany achieved great success by making fine jewelry for the wealthy.

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Introduction

      objects of personal adornment prized for the craftsmanship going into their creation and generally for the value of their components as well.

      Throughout the centuries and from culture to culture, the materials considered rare and beautiful have ranged from shells, bones, pebbles, tusks, claws, and wood to so-called precious metals, precious and semiprecious stones, pearls, corals, enamels, vitreous pastes, and ceramics. In certain eras artist-craftsmen have sometimes placed less emphasis on the intrinsic value of materials than on their aesthetic function as components contributing to the effect of the whole. Thus, they might fashion a brooch out of steel or plastic rather than gold or platinum. Furthermore, in addition to its decorative function, during much of its history jewelry has also been worn as a sign of social rank—forbidden by sumptuary laws (sumptuary law) to all but the ruling classes—and as a talisman (amulet) to avert evil and bring good luck. During the Middle Ages, for example, a ruby ring was thought to bring its owner lands and titles, to bestow virtue, to protect against seduction, and to prevent effervescence in water—but only if worn on the left hand.

Materials and methods

      The first materials used to make objects for personal adornment were taken from the animal and vegetable world. The material taken from the animal world, in a natural or processed form, constituted the actual adornment, whereas vegetable fibres served as its support. A great variety of shells and pieces of shell were used during the prehistoric age and are still used in certain island and coastal cultures to make necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and headdresses. In the inland regions the first materials used for personal adornment came from mammoths' tusks, the horns of reindeer and other animals, and, later on, amber and lignite.

      All materials that have been used over the centuries for the manufacture of jewelry have undergone to some extent mechanical, physical, or chemical treatment for the purpose of transforming their raw shapes into shapes that, in addition to being functional, also satisfy certain aesthetic concepts.

Metals

Precious metals and their properties

      Of gold's (goldwork) properties, when it was first discovered (probably in Mesopotamia before 3000 BC), it was the metal's malleability that was a new phenomenon: only beeswax, when heated to a certain temperature, could be compared to it. Gold's molecules move and change position in accordance with the stresses to which it is submitted, so that when it is beaten it gains in surface area what it loses in thickness. In modern jewelry, gold can take on a variety of hues when it is alloyed with other metals: water green, white, gray, red, and blue.

      After gold, silver (silverwork) is the metal most widely used in jewelry and the most malleable. Although known during the Copper Age, silver made only rare appearances in jewelry before the classical age. In general, silver was, and still is, used in jewelry for economic reasons or to obtain chromatic effects. It was often used in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, however, as support in settings for diamonds and other transparent precious stones, in order to encourage the reflection of light.

      Another rare metal, whose use in jewelry is fairly recent, is platinum. From the 19th century onward this metal was used ever more frequently in jewelry because of its white brilliance and malleability, as well as its resistance to acids and its high melting point.

      Modern jewelry, such as that designed by early 20th-century artists, introduced nonprecious metals such as steel.

metalwork

      The basic components of jewelry have always consisted of sheet metal, metal cast in a mold, and wire (more or less heavy or fine). These components take on the desired shape by means of techniques carried out with the help of tools. Gold in its natural state was beaten while hot or cold and reduced to extremely thin sheets (this operation could be performed with stone hammers). The sheets were then cut into the desired sizes.

      Examination of the most ancient pieces of jewelry shows that one of the techniques used most widely in decorating metal sheets for jewelry was embossing (relief work). Throughout the centuries embossing techniques have remained substantially unchanged, although in modern times mechanization has made possible mass production of decorative parts of jewelry, with great savings of time and labour but with a corresponding lack of art.

      In repoussé the relief is pressed (in a negative mold) or hammered out from the reverse side of the gold sheet and then finished off on the right side with a hammer or engraving tool. For half-modeled or completely round reliefs, the gold leaf was pressed onto wooden or bronze models. Completely round objects were made in two pieces and then welded together.

      Another embossing, or relief, technique is engraving, which involves impressing designs into the metal with a sharp tool.

      Decorative openwork designs can be created by piercing the gold leaf. In the Roman period this technique was called opus interassile.

       granulation is a decorative technique in which small or minute gold balls (with diameters ranging from ¹/₆₀ to ¹/₁₈₀ of an inch) are used to form silhouettes on smooth or embossed metal.

       casting from precious metals has always been rare. When the relief was to be visible only from one side, the metal was poured into the cast and, when hardened, touched up with a graver. When the relief was to be fully modeled, the cire perdue (lost-wax (lost-wax process)) process, involving casting from a wax mold, was used.

      Gold and silver wire, according to its function, can be made into various sizes, shapes, sections, and weights. It can serve to join, to support pendants of varying importance, to make necklaces and bracelets, or to alternate with other decorative components.

      From the 3rd millennium BC through the present day, chains (chain)—ranging from the simple type, consisting of a series of round or oval rings, to one of the oldest elaborations, the “loop in loop,” or square, chain—have offered goldsmiths the widest field for decorative imagination.

       filigree is a form of decoration made exclusively from fine gold or silver wire welded onto the surface of an object made of the same metal or done in openwork (without a background). The decoration to be carried out is designed first on a model with a flat or curved surface identical to that on which the completed filigree is to be welded or to the unsupported shape that it must assume. It can be made from smooth wire or from a ropelike plait or from a series of small hemispheres. A more complicated type of filigree consists of metal wire made in the shape of beads called granulated filigree.

      After having been prepared separately, the different parts that make up a piece of jewelry are put together. In primitive jewelry this was done mechanically, by inserting beaten pins, by bending and beating the parts to be fastened together, or by binding them with gold wire or tape. welding is a technique belonging to a more highly developed stage of ancient goldworking (end of the 3rd millennium BC).

Enamel work (enamelwork)

      In enamel work, powdered glass coloured with metal oxides diluted with water and adhesive is applied to certain parts of the piece of jewelry that have been cut lower or surrounded with a raised rim made of gold, silver, or copper. The object is then heated until the glass melts and adheres to the metal. As the enamel gradually cools, it crystallizes and, when smoothed, takes on greater lustre and colour. The enamel applied to jewelry can be opaque or translucent. By letting light through, transparent enamel catches reflections from the metal to which it is applied and makes visible any engraving done on the metal. Enamel is also distinguished according to the way it is applied, as in cloisonné, champlevé, basse taille, painted, and plique à jour.

      Enameling preceded the polychromy created by precious stones. In the beginning, in Egypt, Greece, and the Sāsānian period in Iran, unpolished enameled parts of jewelry were often used to imitate lapis lazuli or malachite.

      To a limited extent, jewelry also was decorated with the niello technique (from the Latin nigellus, an adjective derived from niger, meaning black). This consists of cutting grooves in gold or silver with a graver and then filling these with a powder made of red copper, silver, lead, sulfur, and borax. When heated, the powder melts and fills the grooves, adhering to the metal. After the piece has cooled, the surface is smoothed and polished, and the design shows up in black.

Gems (gemstone)

      In addition to gold, silver, and platinum, the precious materials most widely used in jewelry are gems—any precious or semiprecious stone. By definition this group also includes some animal and vegetable products with precious characteristics, such as amber, pearls, and coral. Conventionally, the following are classified as precious stones: diamonds, rubies (corundum), emeralds (beryl), and sapphires (corundum). To these, however, can be added chrysoberyl, topaz, and zircon because of their hardness and their refraction and transparency index.

The properties of gems

      Diamonds (diamond) have the highest refraction index, and those used for jewels are very transparent. Diamonds from Indian deposits were known in ancient times; in the West the limited use of diamonds began in the late Middle Ages. Diamonds for jewelry are graded on the basis of colour from blue-white to yellow. Grading also is done on the basis of purity, which varies from perfectly clear, extremely pure stones to those with many impurities and flaws. Large demand provided an incentive for the production of false diamonds (as well as other stones) as early as 1675 in Paris.

      Mogok rubies (ruby), from Myanmar (Burma), are the most highly prized because of their bright red colour (pigeon blood). Those from Thailand are usually a more brownish colour, while those from Sri Lanka tend toward violet. Production of synthetic stones is far greater than the supply of natural rubies. The physical and optical properties of synthetic and natural rubies are so similar that it is difficult to distinguish between them.

      The sapphire (blue variety of corundum) is considered one of the most valuable of precious stones. A sapphire's colouring usually indicates its origin. Those from Myanmar are deep blue. The Kashmir (Indian) sapphire is cornflower blue and is highly prized, being quite rare. Sapphires from Thailand are very similar in colour to those from Myanmar; those from Sri Lanka are of different shades but incline toward violet. Sapphires, like rubies, can be cut so that, in the light, a beautiful, luminous six-pointed star appears on the surface of the gem. Star sapphires and rubies are semi-opalescent. Synthetic sapphires and rubies are produced by the same industries.

      The green emerald is a precious stone used since very ancient times. There is documentation of its presence in Egypt during the life of Pharaoh Sesostris III in the 19th century BC. At the end of the 16th century, emeralds from South America were brought into Europe. On the American continent, the first peoples to use emeralds were those belonging to the pre-Columbian civilizations, in particular the Inca. In 1935 in the United States (Chatham) and in Germany (Farbenindustrie), synthetic emerald crystals were made with characteristics similar to natural ones.

      Among the beryls, mention must be made of morganite (pink beryl) found in various shades of peach-blossom pink. The main deposits are in California and Madagascar.

      The two best known and most widely used varieties of chrysoberyl are alexandrite (transparent) and Oriental cat's-eye (cymophane) (opaque). Because of its great power of absorption of certain colours, alexandrite looks green in daylight and reddish purple in artificial light. The cat's-eye is a yellowish green colour and is characterized by a luminous line. The intensity of the light in this line varies according to the brightness of the rays of light that strike it.

      One of the most important gems with pure crystals is the topaz, used a great deal in jewelry. The honey-yellow variety is the best known, but there are also pink, red, blue, and the less-used colourless stones. The Oriental topaz (a corundum) and citrine quartz are also widely used. They are less rare than other kinds of topaz and, therefore, less expensive but create a similar effect.

      Among the less-important and less-rare stones, the zircon is quite widely used in its three varieties: orange, blue, and colourless. The orange variety is called jacinth (hyacinth) and was used to a great extent in classical antiquity. The blue variety is called starlite or Siam zircon, while the third type is called Ceylon or Matara diamond (Matura diamond).

      Among the semiprecious stones used in jewelry are amethyst, garnet, aquamarine, amber, jade, turquoise, opal, lapis lazuli, and malachite. Matrix jewelry is cut from a stone such as opal or turquoise and the surrounding natural material, or matrix.

      The pearl is one of the oldest gems known. Its colour varies according to the waters from which it comes. Pearls from the Persian Gulf are usually cream-coloured; those from Australia are white with greenish or bluish shades; golden-brown pearls come from the Gulf of Panama; those from Mexico are black or reddish brown; pink pearls are from Sri Lanka; and those from Japan are cream-coloured or white with greenish tones. The main characteristic of the pearl is its iridescence. Baroque pearls (baroque pearl) are those with defects in their outer layer. In modern times baroque pearls are rounded off artificially but, in the 16th and 17th centuries, their irregular form was exploited in jewelry by using them to make up parts of animals or other figures. After huge quantities of cultivated pearls invaded the world market, interest in natural pearls underwent a considerable decrease.

      In addition to pearl, a number of other organic materials, including amber, coral, ivory, and jet, are considered gems.

      Amber is a fossil resin, usually yellowish brown, but on occasion deep brown to red, green, or blue. It is an amorphous hydrocarbon and may contain particles of various foreign materials, trapped insects, and air bubbles. Its lustre is greasy to resinous. The most noted occurrence of amber is along the shores of the Baltic Sea, where pieces have been washed up by wave action. Other important occurrences are along the coast of Sicily, in Romania, and in Myanmar near Myitkyinā.

       coral is the skeletal material of calcium carbonate built up by small animals that live in colonies in the sea. This material is usually branchlike and occurs in a variety of colours, of which the most sought after are rose red to red. The best coral comes from the Mediterranean Sea, particularly off the coasts of Algeria and Tunisia. A black horny coral growth, probably conchiolin, which hardens on exposure to air, has been obtained off the islands of Hawaii. Coral is carved into art objects and cut as beads, cameos, and other ornaments.

      The use of ivory for ornamental purposes dates to prehistory. The term should be restricted to the material derived from the tusks of certain animals—namely, the elephant, hippopotamus, warthog, walrus, sperm whale, narwhal, and the extinct mammoth (fossil ivory). The pale cream colour of new ivory darkens with age to yellow. All types are brittle and will not peel as do the plastics used to simulate them.

      Jet is a dense variety of lignite formed by the submersion of driftwood in the mud of the seafloor. It has been recovered since Roman times from the shales near Whitby in northeastern England. It takes a high polish and was once popular as mourning and ecclesiastical jewelry but has been superseded by black onyx, black tourmaline, and plastics. Because it is actually a variety of coal, it will burn.

Gem engraving, setting, and cutting

      The most ancient technique of stone engraving, intaglio-incised carving, was probably first used to produce seals. The art is believed to have originated in southern Mesopotamia and was highly developed by the 4th millennium BC. During the Hellenistic Age (c. 323–30 BC) intaglio surface engraving gave rise to the idea of carving stones in relief, exploiting the different coloured layers of certain minerals to create contrasting figures ( cameo): the background was cut down to the lower level, of a different colour or shade, in order to make the subject stand out chromatically. The stones that have properties suited for this purpose are sardonyx, agate, and onyx.

      The cameo is usually one of the components for necklaces, bracelets, and rings or is included in medallions with a jeweled frame. The art of cameo in jewelry was most highly developed during three periods: the late republican to early imperial period in Rome, the Renaissance, and the Neoclassical period in the 18th century.

      The evolution of techniques of setting has followed that of stonecutting. The insertion of gems in jewelry can be done in various ways. The setting can have a round, square, oval, or rectangular collet (rim); in periods in which gems were mounted in their own irregular shapes, the collet followed this form. Usually, on the inside of the collet a short distance from the edge, there is a protrusion on which the stone rests. The edge is pounded down around the gem to ensure its stability. In coronet settings the form may be conical or pyramidal, solid or pierced. The edge is first shaped into a row of teeth, which are later hammered down onto the gem in order to hold it in place. Until fairly recently, nearly all gems were mounted on a metal base; and transparent stones, according to their colour, were placed on a gold or silver base to increase the amount of light reflected. As new cuts were developed for stones, setting techniques also progressed, especially for those jewels in which important stones like diamonds, emeralds, and rubies form the main theme. The tendency was to leave the stones as visible as possible (especially in rivière necklaces and bracelets made only of diamonds) by mounting them with a very small ring of white gold or platinum fitted closely against the back of the stone. Three claws, attached to this ring, hold the stone in place.

      Pearls, like some coloured stones, in ancient classical times were pierced with a drill, the hole going half or all the way through according to whether the pearls were to be strung on a necklace or fastened onto a jewel.

      Until the 15th century, stones were only polished or the part to be left visible was rounded into a dome shape called cabochon (cabochon cut). The cutting known as faceting gradually developed from the first attempts in the 15th century, probably in France and the Netherlands. During the 16th century the simple rose cut began to be used, after which there were no new developments until 1640, when, under the patronage of Jules Cardinal Mazarin, the first brilliant cut was carried out (also called the Mazarin cut). Toward the end of that century, a Venitian succeeded in obtaining the triple brilliant cut, which is still used. The numerous cuts used for diamonds today are usually applied to other precious and semiprecious transparent stones as well. For emeralds, rubies, and other coloured stones the square or rectangular cut with a stepped bulb or the cabochon cut are usually used.

The history of jewelry design

      The possibility of tracing jewelry's historic itinerary derives primarily from the custom, beginning with the most remote civilizations, of burying the dead with their richest garments and ornaments. Plastic and pictorial iconography—painting, sculpture, mosaic—also offer abundant testimony to the jewelry worn in various eras.

      It is probable that prehistoric humans thought of decorating the body before they thought of making use of anything that could suggest clothing. Before precious metals were discovered, people who lived along the seashore decorated themselves with a great variety of shells, fishbones, fish teeth, and coloured pebbles. People who lived inland used as ornaments materials from the animals they had killed for food: reindeer antlers, mammoth tusks, and all kinds of animal bones. After they had been transformed from their natural state into various elaborate forms, these materials, together with animal skins and bird feathers, provided sufficient decoration.

      This era was followed by one that saw a transition from a nomadic life to a settled social order and the subsequent birth of the most ancient civilizations. Most peoples settled along the banks of large rivers, which facilitated the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. Indirectly, this also led to the discovery of virginal alluvial deposits of minerals, first among which were gold and precious stones.

      Over the years the limited jewelry forms of prehistoric times multiplied until they included ornaments for every part of the body. For the head there were crowns, diadems, tiaras, hairpins, combs, earrings, nose rings, lip rings, and earplugs. For the neck and torso there were necklaces, fibulae (the ancient safety pin), brooches, pectorals (breastplates), stomachers, belts, and watch fobs. For the arms and hands armlets, bracelets, and rings were fashioned. For the thighs, legs, and feet craftsmen designed thigh bracelets, ankle bracelets, toe rings, and shoe buckles.

Middle Eastern (Middle East, ancient) and Western antiquity

Sumerian (Sumer)

 The most ancient examples of jewelry are probably those found in Queen (social status) Pu-abi's tomb (burial) at Ur in Sumeria (now called Tall al-Muqayyar), dating from the 3rd millennium BC. In the crypt the upper part of the queen's body was covered with a sort of robe made of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, carnelian, agate, and chalcedony beads, the lower edge decorated with a fringed border made of small gold, carnelian, and lapis lazuli cylinders. Near her right arm were three long gold pins with lapis lazuli heads, three amulets (amulet) in the shape of fish—two made of gold and one of lapis lazuli—and a fourth amulet of gold with the figures of two seated gazelles. On the queen's head were three diadems, each smaller than the one below it, fastened to a wide gold band: the first, which came down to cover the forehead, was formed of large interlocking rings, while the second and third were made of realistically designed poplar and willow leaves(see photograph—>). Above the diadems were gold flowers, on drooping stems, the petals of which had blue and white decorations. On the back of the headdress was a Spanish-type comb, with teeth decorated with golden flowers. Huge golden earrings, in the shape of linked, tapered, semitubular circles, completed the decoration of the head. On the neck was a necklace with three rows of semiprecious stones interrupted in the middle by an openwork flower in a gold circle. Many rings were worn on the fingers. There were large quantities of other jewels—among them wrist and arm bracelets and pectorals—belonging to the handmaidens, dignitaries, and even the horses that formed part of the funeral train. As was the custom, the queen's attendants had killed themselves in the crypt after the burial ceremony.

      As this description suggests, Sumerian jewelry forms, much more numerous than those of modern jewelry, represent almost every kind developed during the course of history. Nearly all technical processes also were known: welding, alloys, filigree, stonecutting, and even enameling. Sources of inspiration, aside from geometry (disks, circles, cylinders, spheres), were the animal and vegetable world; and expressive forms were based on an essential realism enriched by a moderate use of colour.

Egyptian (Egypt, ancient)

 The sensational discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamen (18th dynasty; 1539–1292 BC) revealed the fabulous treasures (art and architecture, Egyptian) that accompanied an Egyptian sovereign, both during his lifetime and after his death, as well as the high degree of mastery attained by Egyptian goldsmiths. This treasure is now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and represents the biggest collection of gold and jewelry in the world. The pharaoh's innermost coffin was made entirely of gold, and the mummy was covered with a huge quantity of jewels (see photograph—>). More jewels were found in cases and boxes in the other rooms of the tomb. The diadems, necklaces, pectorals, amulets, pendants, bracelets, earrings, and rings are of superb quality and of a high degree of refinement that has rarely been surpassed or even equaled in the history of jewelry.

      The ornaments in Tutankhamen's tomb are typical of all Egyptian jewelry. The perpetuation of iconographic (iconography) and chromatic principles gave the jewelry of ancient Egypt—which long remained uncontaminated in spite of contact with other civilizations—a magnificent, solid homogeneity, infused and enriched by magical religious beliefs. Ornamentation is composed largely of symbols that have a precise name and meaning, with a form of expression that is closely linked to the symbology of hieroglyphic writing. The scarab, lotus flower, Isis knot, Horus eye, falcon, serpent, vulture, and sphinx are all motif symbols tied up with such religious cults as the cult of the pharaohs and the gods and the cult of the dead. In Egyptian jewelry the use of gold is predominant, and it is generally complemented by the use of the three colours of carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli or of vitreous pastes imitating them. Although there was a set, fairly limited repertoire of decorative motifs in all Egyptian jewelry, the artist-craftsmen created a wide variety of compositions, based mainly on strict symmetry or, in the jewelry made of beads, on the rhythmic repetition of shapes and colours.

      The concept of symmetry was utilized on the small pectoral or pendant (3.3 × 2.4 inches, or 8.4 × 6.1 centimetres) that belonged to Sesostris III in the 12th dynasty (1938–1756 BC); the superbly rhythmic composition is framed by an architectonic design obtained by leaving open all of the nonfigurative part. The jewel is coloured with carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli inlays, while the function of the gold separating these materials is limited to creating the design. The victorious pharaoh is represented by two lions with the plumed heads of falcons in a symmetric position in the act of trampling conquered Nubians and Libyans. Over the scene is the protective vulture of Upper Egypt with wings outspread (Egyptian Museum). These memorial or dedicatory pendants, as well as other small jewels such as earrings, bracelets, and rings, consist exclusively of symbols.

      Necklace beads—generally made of gold, stones, or glazed ceramic—are cylindrical, spherical, or in the shape of spindles or disks and are nearly always used in alternating colours and forms in many rows. The necklaces have two distinct main forms. One, called menat, was the exclusive attribute of divinity and was therefore worn only by the pharaohs. Tutankhamen's menat is a long necklace composed of many rows of beads in different shapes and colours, with a pendant and with a decorated fastening that hung down behind the shoulders. The other, much more widely used throughout the whole period, was the usekh, which, like the vulture-shaped necklace from the tomb of Tutankhamen, also has many rows and a semicircular form.

      Of the many diadems made by Egyptian artist-craftsmen, one of the earliest was discovered in a tomb dating from the 4th dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 BC). It consists of a gold band supported by another band made of copper, to which three decorative designs are applied. In the centre is a disk worked with embossing in the form of four lotus buds arranged radially. On the sides are two papyrus flowers linked horizontally at the base by a disk with a carnelian, while the upper line of the flowers comes together to create a kind of nest in which two long-beaked ibis crouch. The floral and animal symbology is carried out with a style that interprets and characterizes the theme.

      Among the treasures discovered in the tomb of Queen Ashhotep (18th dynasty) is a typical Egyptian bracelet. It is rigid and can be opened by means of a hinge. The front part is decorated with a vulture, whose outspread wings cover the front half of the bracelet. The whole figure of the bird is inlaid with lapis lazuli, carnelian, and vitreous paste.

      A first sign of outside influence occurs in the 18th dynasty and consists of earrings (earring), which are imported jewels, unknown in classical Egyptian production. Another evidence of the influence of foreign styles in some of the jewelry of the 18th dynasty is a headdress that covered nearly all of the hair, made of a network of rosette-shaped gold disks forming a real fabric (New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Foreign influence increased to an ever greater extent during the last dynasties and with the arrival of the Greeks. Like all other forms of artistic expression, in spite of three centuries of Ptolemaic dynasty (up through 30 BC), the great artistic tradition of Egyptian jewelry slowly died out, and the introduction first of Hellenism and then of the Romans led to the definitive decline of the most monumental cultural and artistic structure known throughout all history.

Aegean (Aegean civilizations)

      The Bronze Age civilization that flourished on the Mediterranean island of Crete is known as the Minoan (Minoan civilization). Because Crete lay near the coasts of Asia, Africa, and the Greek continent and because it was the seat of prosperous ancient civilizations and a necessary point of passage along important sea-trading routes, the Minoan civilization developed a level of wealth which, beginning about 2000 BC, stimulated intense goldworking (goldwork) activities of high aesthetic value. From Crete this art spread out to the Cyclades, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, and other Greek island and mainland centres. Stimulated by Minoan influence, Mycenaean art flourished from the 16th to the 14th century, gradually declining at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.

      Among the techniques used in Minoan-Mycenaean goldworking were granulation and filigree, but the most widely used was the cutting and stamping of gold sheet into beads and other designs to form necklaces and diadems, as well as to decorate clothing. The kings from Period I of Mycenaean civilization (c. 1580–1500 BC), discovered in their burial places, wore masks of gold sheet, and scattered over their clothing were dozens of stamped gold disks. The disks reveal the rich variety of decorative motifs used by the Mycenaeans: round, rectangular, ribbon-shaped—including combinations of volutes, flowers, stylized polyps and butterflies, rosettes, birds, and sphinxes.

 A pendant from a Minoan tomb at Mallia, Crete (Archaeological Museum, Iráklion, Greece), is one of the most perfect masterpieces of jewelry that has come down to us from the 17th century BC (see photograph—>). The Sun's disk is covered with granulation and is held up by two bees, forming the central part of the composition. Ring bezels (tops of the rings), with relief engravings of highly animated pastoral scenes, cults, hunting, and war, are also fine. Like those of the other jewelry forms, the ornamental motifs of the necklaces are varied, including dates, pomegranates, half-moons facing each other, lotus flowers, and a hand squeezing a woman's breast. During the late Mycenaean period, earrings appeared in the shape of the head of a bull, an animal frequently represented in early gold plate.

      In addition to goldworking, Minoan-Mycenaean craftsmen also excelled at engraving gemstones for seals and rings.

Phoenician (Phoenicia)

      Phoenicia, a centre for both the production and exportation of jewelry, was not a source of great originality. It is to the trading done by this people throughout the Mediterranean, however, that we owe knowledge of the products of the most highly developed civilizations in the most remote lands—northern Africa, Sardinia, Spain, and Italy. The period in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, during which Scythian-Iranian (Scythian art) Oriental objects with their animalistic motifs were spread and consequently imitated throughout the Mediterranean countries, especially in Greece and Italy, is called the Orientalizing period.

Etruscan

      In Etruria, to a much greater extent than elsewhere, the stimulus provided by the jewelry imported by the Phoenicians led to emulation that soon had imposing results. Alongside imported objects and mechanically repeated Oriental motifs, original forms, techniques, and styles developed that were the result of Etruscan taste. There was an entirely new concept, in which the goals of magnificence, impressive size, and a great wealth of decoration led to some of the most outstanding achievements in the history of jewelry. Technical virtuosity exploited all the resources available to filigree and above all to granulation, carried out with gold alone without chromatic inlaying.

 Fibulae (fibula) began to be made in forms other than the single Oriental leech, or boat, shape: with a dragon bow, lozenge-shaped, with a long foot. Like such ornaments as pendants and the heads of pins, fibulae were often decorated with gold dust, in which opaque granulated figures—ibexes, chimeras, sphinxes, winged lions, centaurs, horsemen, and warriors, nearly all of Oriental derivation—stand out against the smooth surface of the gold. One notable example is the fibula from the lictor's tomb (burial) in Vetulonia (see photograph—>).

      The most elaborate, complicated examples of Orientalizing Etruscan jewelry consist of very large brooches (brooch) with fully sculptured decoration applied to a combined tubular and plate structure. The minutely designed granulated figures of sphinxes, winged lions, chimeras, winged griffons, and human heads—set in series in alternating rows—form a plastic fabric, the details of which are of astonishing technical ability, while at the same time they suggest the evocative, mysterious animalistic symbolism of western Asian civilizations.

      In the period that followed the Orientalized one, Etruscan jewelry revealed Ionic (Ionian) influence (6th–5th century BC). The most beautiful examples are necklaces made of many flexible chains that cross each other and bear different rows of embossed pendants in the shape of harpies, mermaids, Gorgons, and Sileni, interspersed with others such as pomegranates, acorns, lotus flowers, and palms. These show the clear influence, especially in the modeling of the pendant heads, of the Greek severe period, an influence that spread throughout the entire Etruscan territory, from Spina on the Adriatic coast of Italy to southern Italy. Even clearer evidence of the acceptance of imported forms is provided by a new shape, the bulla, a pear-shaped vessel used to hold perfume. Its surface was decorated with embossed and engraved symbolic figures.

Greek

      Because gold was not readily available, jewelry was relatively rare in Archaic (Archaic period) (c. 750–c. 500 BC) and Classical (c. 500–c. 323 BC) Greece. Examples do exist, however, and certain generalizations can be made. In the 7th and 6th centuries BC the jewelry produced in Attica and the Peloponnese shows evidence of strong Oriental stylistic influence, the same influence that in Etruscan territory turned up in a much more magnificent form. In the 5th century BC the Ionic style became predominant, taking the place of the showy Oriental style. War scenes and animals of Oriental origin disappeared, for example, from the wide oval ring bezels and were replaced exclusively by the human figure. These included naked riders on galloping horses; seated and standing maidens, depicted both with clothes and naked; and deities and mythological figures. This extremely refined repertoire in reality was more closely related to sculpture and to classic ideals of beauty than to decoration. Indeed, in its long evolution, Greek jewelry has the predominant character of sculpture in miniature and represents isolated figures or religious, mythological, or heroic scenes.

 Greek expansion into Anatolia to the east, southern Italy to the west, and the Balkan Peninsula to the north resulted in the Hellenization (Hellenistic Age) of this entire area. Under the reign of Alexander the Great, a magnificent era for jewelry began. Hellenistic jewelry, much more so than painting and sculpture, underwent flourishing development in the art centres of the different regions under Greek rule. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the technical ability of Hellenistic goldsmiths reached the highest levels ever attained. A style both sumptuous and full of plastic vigour was created, in which meticulous arrangement of the decorative motifs resulted in the contrast and harmony, clarity and unity, rhythms and cadences that make some of these jewels complete works of art. The very fine technique and virtuosity in miniature is reflected in the creation of the first cameos and in disk earrings bearing pendants, often of minute proportions. A real masterpiece is an earring with a winged figure of a woman driving a two-horse chariot (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The precision of its tiny details, the severity of style with which it is modeled, and the rhythmic dynamism of the figures make this earring a microscopic monument of sculpture (see photograph—>).

      Also worthy of high consideration are the magnificent diadems that came into wide use as a result of the Persian conquests made by Alexander the Great. One type is a rigid elliptical shape with a Hercules knot in the centre and pendants hanging down over the forehead. (The Hercules knot was the most famous one used in ancient times, as it was considered a magic knot and, in jewels, took on the significance of an amulet. It also was used on bracelets, belts, and rings during this period.) Another type, decorated with jewellike enameled flowers, demonstrates the increasing use of colour during the Hellenistic Age.

      One type of necklace that was commonly worn at this time was made of gold pieces, often hollow or filled with resin, that were fashioned into the shape of acorns, amphorae, and rosettes that sometimes alternated with stones or vitreous paste. In the 3rd century BC the bracelet in the shape of a serpent originated and remained popular through the Roman period. The serpent motif also was used for rings.

Roman (ancient Rome)

      In ancient Rome, jewelry was used to an extent never seen before and not to be seen again until the Renaissance. Imperial Rome became a centre for goldsmiths' workshops. Together with the precious stones and metals that were brought to the city came lapidaries and goldsmiths from Greece and the Oriental provinces. The gold ring, which under the republic had been a sign of distinction (social status) worn by ambassadors, noblemen, and senators, gradually began to appear on the fingers of persons of lower social rank until it became common even among soldiers. The great patrician families in Rome and the provinces possessed not only jewels but also magnificent gold and silver household furnishings, as shown by the objects found in Pompeii and nearby Boscoreale (Louvre).

      From the standpoint of style, Roman jewelry in its earlier phases derived from both Hellenistic and Etruscan jewelry. Later it acquired distinctive features of its own, introducing new decorative themes and attaching greater importance to sheer volume (such as massive rings), in keeping with the rather pompous rhetorical spirit displayed at that point in cultural history.

      The motif of a serpent coiled in a double spiral, copied from Hellenistic models, was frequently used for bracelets, rings, arm bands, and earrings. The Romans also used Greek geometric and botanical motifs, palmettos, fleeting dogs, acanthus leaves, spirals, ovoli, and bead sequences. From Etruscan gold jewelry the Romans took the strong plasticity of the bulla, which they transferred to necklace pendants sparely decorated with filigree or combined in completely smooth hemispheres in bracelets, headdresses, and earrings.

      In Pompeii and Rome, jewelry began to take on Italian characteristics. New decorative motifs of a magical nature began to appear, such as the half-moon and the wheel with four spokes. In addition, as Roman jewelry freed itself of Hellenistic and Etruscan influences, greater use was made of coloured stones—topazes, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and pearls. A strong preference was shown for engraved gems, so much so that they were considered collectors' items by wealthy people, including Caesar himself. The stones were set in bezels or supported by pins that passed through them. New techniques that came into use included opus interassile, with which a flat or curved metal surface was decorated with tiny pierced motifs, and niello, a method of enameling used primarily to decorate rings and brooches.

      Many pendants were used in the earrings: from a ring a series of pieces hung down with square bezels or bands of small bullas alternating with stones, which in turn supported pendants in different shapes. There was an extremely varied production of gold mesh and chains, often containing inserted bezels set with stones or half pearls, while others had ivy or laurel leaves attached to them. Although pendants were not used on necklaces in the beginning, later examples have pendants in the form of embossed medallions. Precious stones, vitreous pastes, and cameos with golden frames also served as pendants for necklaces. Toward the end of the 3rd century AD, necklaces often bore medallions or gold coins with portraits of the emperors.

Middle Ages

Byzantine (Byzantine art)

      Ancient Rome, which had brought its civilization to practically all of the world that was known at that time, began to lose its vitality in the early Christian era; by the end of the 4th century AD, its civilization was in full decline. Although its power was gone, Roman culture was indelibly imprinted on Western civilization. The Roman Empire had embraced Christianity, although in reality it was the papacy that had embraced the Roman Empire. The intention of the Byzantine court (at Constantinople, the new seat of imperial power) to maintain Roman supremacy in the field of the arts was forced to give way to a style more closely related to that of the Middle East. Partly for religious reasons, this style soon developed a new spirit and its own distinctive characteristics. The wave of iconoclasm (Iconoclastic Controversy)—the controversy in the 8th and 9th centuries about the depiction of images in religious art—gave the decoration of jewelry, too, a basically ornamental nature, in which the techniques used to the greatest extent were filigree, opus interassile, and enameling, as well as the copious application of precious stones and pearls. Very complex decorations and arabesques were obtained with filigree, while enameling was favoured for representations of flowers and birds. Typically Byzantine were the half-moon-shaped earrings (earring) that were in wide use up through the 12th century. There are examples with pierced decoration, with filigree basketwork, and with the figures of enameled birds facing each other on a golden half-moon. The court jewels, if credit can be given to the figures shown in the mosaics in the church of San Vitale at Ravenna, must have been of astonishing splendour. Although the mosaics give only a sketchy idea, on the figures of Justinian, Theodora, and their retinue, precious ornaments can be distinguished that were of ceremonial magnificence suited to their rank.

      For all practical purposes, Constantinople's artistic activities came to an end when it was conquered and looted during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

Islāmic (Islamic arts)

      After the Arab conquest of Iran (art and architecture, Iranian) brought it into the Islāmic community of peoples, rings, pendants, earrings, and necklaces of gold continued to be worn, and the Iranian tradition of animal art persisted, modified to some extent in order to conform to the canons of Islām, which forbade the making of images. A 12th-century gold pendant in the form of a lion is a highly schematic rendering of this animal; it is decorated with granulation. Other techniques were filigree, encrustation with precious and semiprecious stones, and the use of niello. From the 14th century onward, manuscript illustrations give some idea of the kind of jewelry worn by Persians. In Mongol and Timurid times, jeweled coiffures for women and diademed headdresses for men seem to have been fashionable in court circles. Under the Ṣafavid rulers, jewelry became more sumptuous and elaborate. In the 19th century, native traditions were corrupted by European influence, often with an eye toward European consumption. Traditional designs, however, have persisted in Zīnjanāb and among the Kurdish (Kurd) mountaineers of northwest Iran. Silver (silverwork) decorated with twisted wire arranged in scrolls is a feature of the former. The Kurdish goldsmiths also work in silver, which they decorate with chased or repoussé designs, sometimes reminiscent of motifs found on Sāsānian metalwork.

      Jewelry worn by men and women in Turkey during the Ottoman (Ottoman Empire) period was probably influenced by the fashions current in Iran. Objects of adornment were jeweled turban aigrettes, rings, earrings, necklaces, and armlets. A technique popular in Turkey from the 16th century onward was the encrusting of jade and other hard stones with jewels attached to the surface by delicate floral scrolls in gold. Unfortunately, not many surviving pieces are earlier than the 19th century, when native tradition had been stifled by a taste for Rococo jewelry.

      In North Africa an independent tradition has been maintained by the Berber and Arab tribes. In design the jewelry of southern Morocco shows curious analogies to Byzantine jewelry—heavy silver plaques decorated with niello or cabochons that serve as diadems or headbands. In other parts of Morocco and in Algeria and Tunisia, popular forms of jewelry are headbands, breast ornaments, brooches, pendants, and a characteristic triangular-shaped shawl pin.

Teutonic (Germanic peoples)

      While in the Byzantine area classic forms of expression were being wiped out by the development of a skillful class of artisans who impressed their entirely ornamental taste on jewelry produced solely for decorative purposes, in the rest of Romanized Europe a huge, complex movement of peoples was taking place. Bringing their tradition of polychrome decoration with them, these peoples swarmed over the old declining Greek-Roman artistic civilization. Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, and Lombards emigrated, extending their conquests into central, northern, and southern Europe beginning in the 4th century AD, and they remained there until the 9th century. In accordance with an ancient definition, they were called barbarians—that is, not Christians but foreigners. They also were considered barbarians because they were thought to have destroyed the classical art of the Roman world.

      Throughout all the provinces of the Roman empire, these Teutonic tribes produced gold ware that shared a common, well-defined style moderated according to the tastes of the particular regions in which they settled. The blend of Teutonic and Iranian, Scythian, Sarmatian, or Celtic styles produced ornaments that bore little resemblance to those of the great classic tradition. Precious ornamentation, which represented the main artistic ambition of these nomadic peoples, was achieved with faience (decoration made of opaque coloured glazes), jewels, and enamels. Dominant also was braiding, which was done with strips of embossing, with bands of stones or enamel set in bezels, and also with filigree.

      There was a highly varied production of fibulae (fibula). One of the most impressive for its size (14 inches) is the one in the shape of a bird found in Petroasa, Rom. (National Museum of History, Bucharest, Rom.), whose body is covered with sockets of different sizes and shapes in which stones and enamel were meant to be set. The most widely used type of fibula was the so-called buckler variety, with a fan head, arched bridge, and flat or molded foot, with pierced work in various shapes. Equally common were disk fibulae, either flat or with concentric embossing, while S-shaped fibulae and belt buckles were rarer.

      Rigid necklaces, made up of several circles with much decoration, were typical. The most magnificent examples are those from the 6th century from Alleberg and Färjestaden, Sweden (Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm). A ring with zoomorphic braiding (Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan) was found in the same region. This technique was most widely used in the Celtic and northern Germanic regions of Europe, while in the British Isles, to judge from the magnificent jewels in the Sutton Hoo burial-ship treasure (British Museum, London), it was the technique of enameling that reached extremely high levels. In northern Europe and Scandinavia the main goldworking techniques were filigree, embossing, and turning on a lathe.

      As time passed, the different products of barbaric goldworking art took on a more definite stylistic identification according to the various races and locations.

Western European

      The widespread adoption of Christian burial rites put an end to the custom of burying the dead with all their jewelry. Thus, beginning with the 8th century, almost the only important gold products handed down to modern times were those preserved in abbey and cathedral treasures or by imperial and royal courts; among these gold products are very few pieces of jewelry. As the graphic and plastic arts gradually developed, however, they documented the jewelry in use at the time. According to these sources, little jewelry was worn in the Romanesque period (c. 950–c. 1150).

      In the 11th century, monastic workshops for the service of the church began to decline, disappearing one after another to be replaced by secular workshops. Goldworking activities in western Europe gradually freed themselves from the centralizing patronage of the church in order to serve the numerous courts and noble families, and in the 12th century the first goldsmiths' guilds were organized.

      One of the most widely used ornaments in medieval Europe was the ring. To it was attributed ever more symbolic and religious value, as well as ever greater importance as a talisman, good omen, and sign of office; and, as always, it served as a seal.

      Another widely used ornament was the brooch. Most popular was the medallion type, which might be round, star-shaped, or pentagonal, while the diamond shape was less common. Ring brooches, which were open in the centre, also were popular. They took many forms, including round, pentagonal, and star-, heart-, or wheel-shaped. One outstanding bejeweled and enameled example—the Founder's Jewel bequeathed by William of Wykeham to New College, University of Oxford, in 1404—is in the shape of the letter M. The arches formed by the letter resemble Gothic (Gothic art) windows, reflecting the importance of architectural elements in all forms of art at this time. Standing in the windows are the expertly modeled figures of the Virgin Mary and the Angel of the Annunciation, and the whole is surmounted by a crown.

      Another fine example that typifies the plastic decorative repertory of the flamboyant Gothic style is a silver belt buckle from Sweden (Historical Museum, Stockholm). Modeled in high relief on the buckle plate is a gentleman on horseback approaching a lady followed by his servant. The three-lobed buckle ring is modeled in a complex design that includes a seated person and a man kneeling in front of him (c. 1340).

Renaissance to modern

15th and 16th centuries

      The “rebirth” of Classicism (Classicism and Neoclassicism), which combined all artistic expression in a single orderly, rational approach, found a fertile creative field in gold jewelry. During the Renaissance the jeweler's art reached truly high levels—particularly in Italy in the grand duchy of Tuscany. Eighteen centuries after the great flowering of Hellenistic jewelry, Italian Renaissance jewelry once again achieved an expressive form worthy of comparison with the figurative arts. There was, in fact, no sharp division between the two. Nearly all the most famous artists responsible for the Renaissance artistic revival—Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo, and Sandro Botticelli—served apprenticeships in the goldsmiths' workshops, where gentlemen went to order medallions for their hats and where ladies went to have their jewels set.

      Because of their elaborate workmanship, which meant that their artistic value was far greater than the intrinsic value of their materials, many pieces of jewelry have been handed down to modern times in public and private collections. Even more extensive evidence, however, is provided by paintings from this period that show the jewelry worn by both men and women. From portraits by Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo, one can see, for example, that as early as the second half of the 15th century the elaborate decoration of women's hair with precious materials had become a real art, in which goldsmiths and craftsmen carefully worked out every line of the often extremely complicated ornamental design that had to harmonize with the movement of braids or unbound hair.

 During the Renaissance there was an enormous increase in the use of jewelry throughout Europe. The courts of England, France, and Spain, the French duchy of Burgundy, and the Italian duchy of Tuscany indulged in extravagant contests, trying to outdo each other in the display of gold, gems, and pearls, a phenomenon that for centuries had not occurred on such a large scale. The nobility (social status) and the rich middle class followed this fashion, and even the youngest scions were covered with jewels, as evidenced by the portrait of the Medici princess by Il Bronzino, as well as many others. Francis I of France surrounded himself with famous artists like Benvenuto Cellini and Leonardo da Vinci. In Paris, artists such as Jean Duvet, Étienne Delaune, and the Fleming Abraham de Bruyn were the outstanding creators of designs for jewelry. Hans Holbein the Younger (Holbein, Hans, the Younger) was the individual who was most responsible for the introduction of Renaissance jewelry from the Continent into England, where he found fertile ground, thanks to Henry VIII's (Henry VIII) great passion for jewels—a passion surpassed only by that of Elizabeth I (see photograph—>). Henry possessed more than one magnificent parure, or set of matching jewelry, designed for him by Holbein, as well as several hundred rings.

      As Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII suggests, the custom of wearing bejeweled clothing, which had begun gradually in the 14th century, flourished in the Renaissance. Even hat brims were decorated, with designs in pearls as well as with pendants of great value.

 In Holbein's portrait there is also a magnificent example of a popular necklace of the period. It consisted of wide gold bands decorated with embossing that formed medallions, in the center of which were mounted large stones. From the necklace hung a pendant. Only rarely were women content to limit themselves to a single necklace, usually wearing a choker-type necklace made of pearls, with or without a pendant, together with a longer second necklace made of gold, with or without the inclusion of gems. A third necklace was often hooked to the clothing, on the shoulders, and formed a double loop, being lifted up in the centre and fastened to the bodice with a jeweled pin.

      The precious ornament on which the artist-jewelers lavished all their creativity and technical ability was the pendant. At first this consisted of a decorative medallion enclosing a cameo with figures and subjects of classic derivation, such as busts of women and pagan deities. These figures were later enriched with inserts of gold, enamel, and gems, which enhanced the polychrome effect. Still later, the figures were freely modeled in brilliant polychromy with a great variety of subjects—animals, Tritons, mermaids, ships, sea monsters, and symbolic figures, sometimes in elaborate tableaux—fashioned in complicated openwork compositions comprising several linked pieces, in which the irregular shape of a large baroque pearl was often used for the body of an animal or a centaur's torso.

      Throughout Europe the ring enjoyed wide popularity in an unlimited variety of types, including those with a bezel that could be opened and used as a container for relics, symbols, or—as romantic tradition has it—poison.

17th century

      Toward the end of the 16th century, the Renaissance style blended gradually into the manifestations of the Baroque (Baroque period) period, which arose at different times in different countries. This gradual change in the style of jewelry was conditioned mainly by two factors. The first was of a technical nature and concerned improvements in the cutting of precious stones, while the second consisted of a great vogue for the cultivation of flowers. Floral and vegetable decoration therefore became the most fashionable theme for jewelry designers, and its popularity spread throughout Europe. The ornamental motifs of knots, ribbons, and Rococo scrolls also saw a considerable development. There was a corresponding decrease in the amount of figurative decoration, which finally completely disappeared. At first these ornamental forms were carried out in openwork gold jewelry (goldwork), the majority of which was coloured with enamel; later diamonds and other precious stones, whose popularity rose dramatically with the improvement in faceting techniques, became the real protagonists in the composition of jewelry.

      During the 17th century the number of pieces of jewelry worn decreased, as did the fashion for male adornment. The last monarch to make heavy use of jewels was Louis XIV, and the word heavy is used here in a literal sense, the great weight consisting mainly of gems with which the monarch covered himself for official ceremonies. He had his own personal jeweler, Gilles Légaré, who was a guest in the Louvre palace. He was not the only sovereign, however, who enjoyed showing off his jewels nor was Versailles the only court in Europe to follow the king's example. Those of London, Madrid, and Munich were not far behind. The precious ornaments worn by women started on the hat, on the side of which at least one striking aigrette (spray of gems) was fastened. Then came two or three heavy necklaces, each of which might have a pendant, then a belt that followed the pointed shape of the bodice. Other jewels were inserted along the armholes, shoulders, and wrists, and at least four rings were worn on the hands. Often the heavy fabrics used for the clothing were embroidered with gold thread. It was during this period that a spectacular form of jewelry was created in Spain, which in a more subdued form spread throughout Europe: the stomacher brooch, which covered a woman's entire bodice, from neckline to waist. With its heavily bejeweled composition of scrolls, leaves, and pendants on a gold framework that followed the curves of the body, even extending under the armpits, this jewel usually contained no fewer than 50 precious stones of different sizes. A famous example is the one in emeralds from the treasure of the Virgin of Pilar, now displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

18th century

      About 1725, Brazilian diamonds in large numbers were imported into Europe, and, during the course of the century, this stone became so popular that imitations were produced. The jewelry of this period seems to have been created to glorify and exploit the cutting of diamonds and other precious stones. The dense forms of Baroque jewelry were replaced by an entirely different conception, in which the design was to appear in gems alone, while the metal setting was concealed to the greatest extent possible. The greater lightness that resulted was increased by the large number of empty spaces in the composition as well as by its lack of symmetry in many cases. Wide choker necklaces with pendants were popular, and the stomacher brooch remained in style but in a lighter, airier form. The jeweled stems of the aigrette were often made so that they could sway back and forth in order to show off the sparkle of the diamonds that covered them. The brooch in the shape of a bouquet of flowers, comprising a variety of gems, became fashionable. As in the 17th century, both men and women wore jeweled buckles on their shoes.

      A piece of jewelry that was widely used for daytime wear during this century was the chatelaine, on which, together with the watchcase, goldsmiths lavished some of their most highly refined work. The chatelaine was a pendant made of jointed, embossed gold components of different shapes and sizes, with scenes and designs in elaborate frames. It was fastened by means of a hook to the belt or waistcoat pocket, and from its protruding points hung decorative chains of various lengths, on which men fastened their watches, the keys for winding them, and other accessories. Women used the chatelaine to carry keys, scissors, and other more or less useful objects.

      During the last 30 years of the 18th century, the great sensation caused by the archaeological discoveries in Pompeii and Herculaneum caused art forms to turn toward classical ideals of harmony and brought about a decisive change in European tastes and decorative forms. Curved lines no longer appeared in the ornamental repertoire, the new Neoclassical style being characterized by greater simplicity, together with severity of composition. Jewelry forms, too, were influenced by decorative motifs based on Greek and Roman models, and the cameo became fashionable once again.

      An English pottery manufacturer, Josiah Wedgwood (Wedgwood, Josiah), made a big contribution to the popularization of the new jewelry forms. An expert technician, he produced reproductions of classic cameos (cameo), calling upon sculptors like John Flaxman to work with him on the execution of oval, round, and octagonal plaques with figures done in relief in a white paste on a light blue, green, black, or pink background. These plaques, framed in gold, were used for all sorts of jewelry—medallions, pins, pieces of diadems, belts, bracelets, and rings.

19th century

      The Industrial Revolution destroyed forever the ancient role of jewelry as a symbol of social rank (social status). The social evolution created a market for a vast quantity of jewelry at prices the middle class could afford; and so jewelry, too, succumbed to the machine. Hundreds of different components for ornaments were produced by machines, an electric gold-plating technique was invented, metal alloys were used in place of gold and silver, and the production of imitation stones increased in both quantity and quality. Despite the growing dominance of the machine, however, the goldsmiths' technical ability remained at a high level.

      The jewelry produced in the 19th century is characterized by a stylistic eclecticism that takes its inspiration from all past styles—Gothic, Renaissance, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, Rococo, Naturalistic, Moorish, and Indian, all tinged with the Sir Walter Scott–Lord Byron Romanticism of the period. The futility of transferring forms of artistic expression from an era in which they were the result of organic aesthetic development and of adopting them for objects that reflect only a gesture of romantic admiration is evident in the painting by Jacques-Louis David (David, Jacques-Louis) (Louvre, Paris) immortalizing Napoleon's coronation ceremony in 1804. The painting provides documentation on the precious ornaments worn by the ladies who were present. In their jewelry, the conventional, rhetorical Empire style appears as a strict, uninspired interpretation of classical motifs, a far cry from the exquisite Neoclassicism of the 18th century.

      Besides mass production, the 19th century saw the establishment of large artistic commercial firms that produced high-quality jewelry suited to the requirements of the prosperous new bourgeois class. While always satisfying very high standards in regard to technique and materials, these firms tended, from the aesthetic point of view, to reflect the tastes of a bourgeois clientele, which are usually quite traditional.

      The oldest of the firms was the one founded by Peter Carl Fabergé (Fabergé, Peter Carl) in St. Petersburg in 1870, which took over from the firm his father had started in 1842. Fabergé attained great renown at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1900, where for the first time he put on display all the imperial Easter eggs that he had created, together with a selection of other “luxurious objects.” Fabergé used a greater variety of precious and semiprecious stones than almost any other jeweler in history. He had a strong preference for the Louis XVI style but also made numerous objects in the Italian Renaissance, Rococo, and medieval styles, as well as in the so-called old Russian style, which is a mixture of Byzantine and Baroque elements. Decoration with enameling, too, was one of the main specialties of the Fabergé firm.

      In Paris in 1898 Alfred Cartier and his son Louis founded a jewelry firm of great refinement. The firm was distinguished for a production characterized by very fine settings, largely of platinum, which were designed so that only the precious stones, always selected from the very purest, were visible. At the beginning of the 20th century, Cartier was the most famous jeweler in the world, supplying jewels to the king of Portugal, the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the grand dukes and princes of Russia, the Prince of Wales, and other notables.

      In the United States in 1851 Charles Lewis Tiffany (Tiffany, Charles Lewis) (father of Louis Comfort Tiffany, one of the most original of the Art Nouveau artist-craftsmen) began producing silverware according to English “sterling” standards in New York City. In 1886 he introduced the Tiffany setting, a special type of fork for the setting of diamonds. Among his clients was President Abraham Lincoln.

      Other high-quality jewelry firms founded in the 19th century were Van Cleef & Arpels in Paris, Bulgari in Rome, Asprey & Company in London, Black, Starr & Frost in New York City, and Patek Philippe in Geneva.

      The development of the movement called Art Nouveau at the end of the 19th century represented a reaction against the imitation of ancient styles and the emphasis given, in the creation of jewelry, to precious stones. The material used for Art Nouveau jewelry was prized not for its intrinsic value but for its ability to render a design or to carry out chromatic effects. The new jewelry was made from any material that would best express the new symbolic or decorative ideas. Vegetable and animal components, together with the feminine figure, formed the basis for compositions made of flowing lines of rich plastic and chromatic effect and antistructural, dynamic design on a high artistic level.

      In Paris, through the works he presented at the Salon du Champ de Mars in 1895, René Lalique (Lalique, René) (1860–1945) achieved a position of European renown and importance. Lalique personified the Art Nouveau jeweler-artist, his works providing evidence of such highly personal taste that they can be compared to Renaissance jewels. They lean toward a symbolism carried out by the use of milky or watery blue-green colours; of stones such as the opal; of disquieting animals such as the snake, the owl, the octopus, and the bat; and of feminine figures, usually enigmatic, mysterious, and dreamy. Enamel, ivory, vitreous paste, and engraved glass were often used by Lalique to obtain pictorial and plastic effects in his jewels.

      Unlike Lalique, the jewelers Georges Fouquet (1858–1929) and Henri Vever (1854–1942) expressed themselves through more synthetic geometric forms. The pendant representing a butterfly by Fouquet and the bracelet and ring for the actress Sarah Bernhardt (both in the Périnet Collection, Paris) show a carefully thought-out stylization.

      The Czechoslovak graphic designer Alphonse Mucha (Mucha, Alphonse) (1860–1939), who worked in Paris, created a number of jewelry designs, transferring his brilliant talent as an illustrator to precious stones and metals.

      In the United States the floral style in jewelry found one of its most highly personal interpreters in Louis Comfort Tiffany (Tiffany, Louis Comfort) (1848–1933), one of the greatest of all American designers. In the creation of jewelry he expressed himself at first by transferring to Art Nouveau forms the colourful Oriental and Byzantine style that so fascinated him. Later he adopted Lalique's French Symbolism, on which he set his own stylistic mark. His development of the richly coloured, iridescent Favrile glass created an international sensation.

20th century (modern art)

      The Art Nouveau movement came to an end at the beginning of World War I. The years that followed the war's end seethed with new excitement. In this new phase, the stylistic trends—particularly the nonfigurative—that began to emerge in the most advanced jewelry creations were closely linked to those of painting and sculpture. Cubism, Futurism, the abstractionism of Piet Mondrian and other artists of the de Stijl group, Paul Klee's paintings, and above all the Bauhaus school (which aimed at integrating artistic disciplines with one another and with industrial techniques) provided a basis for the new forms used in avant-garde jewelry.

      Compositions were based mainly on the interplay of geometric forms. Like Art Nouveau jewelry, creations of the Art Deco movement (named for the art displayed at the 1925 Paris exposition) used materials suitable for expressing the new stylistic language. Preference was given to the smooth, polished, satined surfaces of precious metals or even of steel. Diamonds and other precious stones were used sparingly, functioning largely as chromatic accents. In the same piece of jewelry, coral could be combined with diamonds, regardless of the great difference in intrinsic value, because their sole purpose was to satisfy the aesthetic requirements of the nonfigurative styles.

      During this period there were outstanding artist-jewelers such as Raymond Templier, Jean Fouquet, and René Robert in France, H.G. Murphy in England, and Wiwen Nilsson in Sweden.

      Later, artists of great international renown devoted some of their creative efforts to the art of jewelry. Some—such as Georges Braque, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, and Jean Dubuffet—designed jewelry, while others—including Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Gio Pomodoro—designed and made jewels.

      One of the most recent developments in modern mass-produced jewelry is the use of plastic. This material, as well as providing colour, can have mineral fragments or dust embedded in it or can be used in combination with more or less valuable metals, producing pieces of jewelry whose composition may call for considerable effort and which may be of much interest.

Non-Western cultures

East Asian

Chinese

      Much of Chinese jewelry, both of recent and early date, displays the familiar manipulative skill of the Chinese craftsmen; yet the work of the goldsmith or lapidary applied to personal ornament does not represent so distinct a branch of craft as it does in the West and is accorded no special attention by the native connoisseurs and writers on the arts. Most of the jewelry is designed to adorn the costume rather than the person, and much of it has a fulsome and insubstantial quality that is not immediately pleasing to Western eyes. Necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are comparatively rare, headdresses and elaborate hairpins being the more common forms attached to the person. In the traditional costume of recent times, ornate hooks and buckles were used to attach girdles, and women wore strings of beads (bead), often multiple and variously spaced, with decorative plaques and other larger ornaments interspersed. The beads might be attached to the neck, head, or waist, and their purpose was to dignify the whole figure, rather than to display the fine quality of a curiously wrought gem. In any case, the splendour of the stuff of the costume, with richly woven or embroidered ornament, provided the distinctions of rank (social status) and wealth, and jewelry was often dispensed with altogether. The long sleeves and high collar of the garment left little of the person exposed for ornament set against the skin, in the manner favoured in the West.

      In the time of the Shang dynasty, in the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC, bone and ivory hairpins with ends carved in the form of birds or abstract figures were a popular adornment. The many finely wrought, small jade plaques of the period, depicting animals in profile, are in many cases clearly intended for sewing to the costume. The earliest evidence of gold ornaments belongs to the time about 400 BC, though these are harness mounts, or weapon parts, rather than jewelry in the usual sense. The latter is better represented by the belt hooks (said to have been adopted from the nomads of inner Asia) that were probably worn by both men and women. They were mostly made of bronze, with fine cast ornaments usually of abstracted dragon and bird heads. These belt hooks were inlaid with gold or silver foil, polished fragments of turquoise, or more rarely with jade or glass; sometimes they were gilded.

      Toward the end of the Han dynasty, probably not before the later 2nd century AD, the art of granulation was communicated to China from the Hellenized region of the Black Sea coast. Granulation can be traced in China until about the 10th century AD, its discontinuation in the East curiously coinciding with the loss of the technique in the West. Granulation was combined with filigree; and hairpins, combs, earrings, and costume plaques survive in some quantity, particularly from the richly furnished tombs (burial) of the T'ang dynasty (Tang dynasty) (AD 618–907). There are plaques with birds and flowers delineated by soldered wire, inlaid with turquoise, on a ground of fine granulation that appears like a dust of gold.

      The employment of the repoussé technique in gold and silver, particularly on the heads of combs, can be attributed to the T'ang period but became more common in the Sung dynasty (Song dynasty) (AD 960–1279). Meanwhile, hairpins of filigree, with heads shaped as butterflies or flowers, sometimes with pearls or small jade additions, continued the age-old fashion. A scented hairpin takes the place of the scarf or ring of European romance. They were called pu yao (“shaking while walking”) and were loosely made so as to sway when the wearer moved. Gilded bronze and silver were the principal materials. There are accounts of elaborate headdresses, some no doubt of the kind representing a complete phoenix such as are to be seen on clay tomb statuettes of the T'ang period, but no surviving examples of these can be attributed with certainty to the Sung period. Jade ornaments during this period were still attached to the costume.

      Jewelry survives in greater quantity from the Ming dynasty (AD 1368–1644) and gives an impression of greater taste for elaborate figural and floral designs in high repoussé relief and for the effect of semiprecious stones. The latter were prized for their colour rather than their luminosity or rarity. They are never elaborately faceted, being merely ground flat and beveled at the edge for the most part and are set nearly always en cabochon, with barely a preliminary polishing, sometimes even retaining the irregularities of the pebble. The stones are invariably semiprecious or even commonplace: amethyst, agate, chalcedony, pink and other quartzes, and, of course, jade. Until modern times, this last has been the most admired of the stones, especially the white variety, which was used for spacers and linking pieces in the silk and beaded hangings of elaborate costumes. The plaques of silver repoussé with flowers and scenes of people were probably used only by men as belt ornaments. Apart from the signet ring, the use of which may not go back beyond Ming times, the male could affect jewelry only in his accoutrement.

Japanese (arts, East Asian)

      From as early as 1000 BC until the 6th century AD, Japanese jewelry primarily consisted of comma-shaped objects—not usually more than an inch in length—carved initially of green jade and eventually of glass. Called magatama, these beads or pendants were sometimes pierced to be strung in a necklace. The symbolic meaning of the magatama, which were often placed in tombs, can only be guessed at. Similar beads also were popular in Korea from the 3rd to the 6th century AD.

      In historical times, traditional Japanese costume, male and female, has never allowed the use of ornaments of precious metal or stone, so that nothing in the history of Japanese craft and taste corresponds to the jeweler's work of the West. Hairpins with elaborate heads were increasingly used in the Tokugawa (Tokugawa period) (Edo) period (1603–1868) by women of the geisha and courtesan classes but not by women of other classes. In the same period men were permitted the ostentation of the inrō, a small tiered box for tobacco, medicines, confections, and the like, which might be beautifully painted in lacquer and inlaid with mother-of-pearl or precious metal, often in strikingly naturalistic designs. The ivory girdle toggle called netsuke, always delicately and often intriguingly carved, was the only other personal ornament that usage allowed.

Indian (India)

      The Indian subcontinent (South Asian arts) consists of the Republic of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, but at various times in history its domain has spread to include the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Myanmar, and parts of Afghanistan as well. The area's earliest known urban civilization is called the Indus (Indus civilization), or (after an important archaeological site) the Harappān, civilization. It is dated roughly from 2300 to 1750 BC. From this period can be attributed a graceful bronze statue representing a naked dancer. The dancer's hair is braided and decorated, and she wears a necklace with three pendants. Her left arm is fully covered by armlets, and her right arm has an armlet at the elbow and another one near the wrist. This absolutely outstanding specimen provides documentation for the early establishment of the Indian practice of wearing multiple bangle bracelets. Although archaeological evidence of rings, bracelets, and other types of jewelry have been found, no other actual documentation of the way the pieces were worn is available for this period.

      Bronze, stone, and ivory sculptures have been discovered dating from the 2nd century BC onward. These include two female figures found in Bhārhut (Bharhut). The statues are lavishly adorned with jewelry: hair ornaments, earrings, necklaces with round and cylindrical beads, chains, belts, coiled ankle bracelets, arm bracelets, and arm rings. Apart from these jewels, the figures wear only a small cloth on their heads. This abundance of jewelry, complemented by little more than veils and scarves, is typical as far as Indian ceramics, painting, and sculpture are concerned. Female figures in Indian art of all periods are almost always depicted wearing huge quantities of jewelry in place of real garments; indeed, the jewels can be thought of as serving as a type of clothing.

      The first date for which there is extensive documentation on jewels is the 4th–5th century AD. This information is provided by Buddhist statues and the cycles of wall paintings in the Ajantā caves (Ajanta Caves). Although certainly not the only source for such works, the Ajantā site is one of the most extensive and best preserved. The great variety of types of jewelry represented and the dominance of polychromy indicates the high degree of development attained by the art of jewelry making.

      The lavish use of polychrome jewelry was possible because of the ancient practice of pearl diving and because of the wealth and variety of deposits of precious and semiprecious stones to be found in India and the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar. This situation of plenty, in combination with a favourable climate, helped goldsmiths and jewelers to proliferate and spread, albeit to the detriment of a truly high-class artistry. Although the jewelers were exceptionally skilled craftsmen, they do not seem to have been stylistic innovators. There are no records of particularly gifted artist-jewelers; the only names that have come down through the ages are those of large numbers of patterns.

      In the Indus areas and in those under their influence, the setting, polishing, and piercing of precious and semiprecious stones underwent precocious evolution. Stonecutting, however, was accepted only recently; in the past it was considered preferable not to decrease the size of the stone. In general, there was a preference for a many-hued rich effect that was less a form of artistic self-expression than a display of showy glitter aimed at astonishing the onlooker.

      During the Mughal Empire (Mughal Dynasty) (1526–1761), rich rajas adorned themselves with jewels—on their turbans, on their ears, around their necks, inserted in their nostrils and even between their teeth. The precious objects worn by women were even more numerous. By this time Indian jewelry had acquired special meanings and nomenclature in connection with a variety of religious beliefs; thus every object had its own specific name, indicating its role and form. For the head alone there were golden wreaths, large brooches, braids made from three bands of gold leaves with a star in the middle set with gems, braids to be placed along the part in the hair, lotus leaves made of gold sheet to be worn at the nape of the neck with bunches of gold flowers next to them, and tiaras in complicated shapes complete with many tinkling pendants. There were similarly large numbers of individually named ornaments for the forehead, the ears, the nose, the neck, the upper part of the arm, the wrist, the fingers, the ankles, and the toes. A variety of forms were used for the earrings (earring), in which pearls, filigree, gems, and coral appeared in floral compositions based on the contrast between the different colours. Some Indian women embedded a jewel in the forehead or pierced the nose in order to wear a jewel in the left nostril. Necklaces were sometimes so long that they came below the navel, and different names were given to those made only of pearls and those of gold. The former also were distinguished according to the number of strings, of which there could be as many as several dozen. Some necklaces were made of a combination of precious stones and pearls, while others were made of amulets in various shapes. A very early type of Hindu amulet called a nauratan was made of a gold plaque with nine precious stones fastened above it. A series of nauratans could be used to form a necklace. Jeweled belts followed the shape of the body and often had extra pieces that reached up to the neck or down to the bracelets worn around the thigh. Ankle bracelets were often linked by tiny decorative chains running down the instep to the rings on the toes.

      Jewelry continues to play an important role in modern Indian dress, but frankly the items produced today do not compare with those of the past. On the contrary, the modern ornaments, though lavishly produced, are of only limited artistic interest.

Southeast Asian (Southeast Asian arts)

      There is a long gold-working (goldwork) tradition among the peoples of Southeast Asia, whose jewelry shows evidence of Tibetan, Chinese, and Indian stylistic influence. The areas in which personal ornamentation with precious objects underwent the greatest development were Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Myanmar jewels are outstanding for the beauty of their designs and for the technical accomplishment of their workmanship. Typical of them is the conical headdress, reflecting the traditional architectural form of the stupa (Buddhist shrine), and the bejeweled, rigid shoulder decorations with a raised line similar to that of pagoda roofs, worn by dancers in addition to arm and ankle bracelets, belts, and brooches made of gold and coloured stones. Although it has its own distinct characteristics, Myanmar jewelry was heavily influenced by Indian styles, especially in regard to a taste for great abundance; thus, each single jewel, rather than standing out, blends into the overall effect.

      Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were subject to greater Chinese influence because of their geographic position. In these territories, too, the principal documentation for the period when precious ornamentation experienced its most flourishing development is to be found in Buddhist sculpture. The outstanding forms of expression in the art of jewelry were thus linked to religious rites, contributing to the glorification of the figures worshiped by the cult.

Scythian (Scythian art)

      It is to the Scythians, a seminomadic people from the Eurasian steppes who moved out from southern Russia into the territory between the Don and the Danube and then into Mesopotamia, that we owe a type of gold production, which, on the basis of its themes, is classified today as animal-style (animal). During the early period (5th–4th century BC), this style appeared on shaped, pierced plaques made of gold and silver (silverwork), which showed running or fighting animals (reindeer, lions, tigers, horses) alone or in pairs facing each other, embossed with powerful plasticity and free interpretation of the forms. The animal-style had a strong influence in western Asia during the 7th century BC. Such ornaments as necklaces, bracelets, pectorals, diadems, and earrings making up the Ziwiye treasure (discovered in Iran near the border between Kurdistan and Azerbaijan) provide evidence of this Asiatic phase of Scythian gold-working art. The ornaments are characterized by highly expressive animal forms. This Central Asian Scythian-Iranian style passed by way of Phoenician trading in the 8th century BC into the Mediterranean and into Western jewelry.

African (art, African)

      Personal decoration in African cultures usually consists of modest though showy material. The works with a relatively high degree of development come from those areas in which the influence of more advanced Mediterranean and Oriental cultures led to activities of some significance in the field of jewelry. Silver was the metal most commonly worked, especially in the northern coastal territories, and the forms used for ornaments were derived mainly from the art of Islām. Decoration that rarely surpassed the level of craftsmanship appears on objects such as bracelets, necklaces, rings, brooches, earrings, and belt buckles, and the techniques were usually limited to embossing, filigree, and the insertion of coins or semiprecious stones that had simply been polished.

      Regions such as Ethiopia, the Sudan (Sudan, The), and the Bantu (Bantu peoples) territory, partly because of their Egyptian-Nubian and Arabian origins and partly because they were the centres of a flourishing gold trade, developed a gold-working activity of fairly high quality, which was devoted mainly to the production of objects for the courts and for religious ceremonial use. These regions also were devoted to the production of personal ornaments such as embossed plaques, rings, necklaces, and tiaras.

      The same observations hold true for the Ashanti (Asante) culture in Ghana, from which there is a large collection of gold jewelry in the British Museum in London. The local chieftain of each Ashanti tribe had a private workshop for gold jewelry in his small court. In the 18th and 19th centuries the most magnificent court was that of the Asantehene (king of the united Ashanti state) in Kumasi, the Ashanti capital on the Gold Coast. A widely used object was the emblem of the “bearer of souls,” a decorated disk that, together with other insignia, was borne by the king's pages. On the back of the disk was a little tube through which a gold wire or cord was run. The decoration of these disks consisted of a mixture of separate and varied embossed radial or spiral motifs, derived in an unorthodox manner from classical art. The mysterious presence of these ornamental motifs in Ashanti jewelry can be explained only by the sporadic appearance of European goldsmiths in that area, probably during medieval times. Rigid necklaces also were in use, as were rings, which instead of the bezel had fully sculptured figures of animals.

      In the past the sandy dunes of Senegal provided alluvial soil from which the natives obtained much gold. There, as in other parts of Africa, the metal that was not exported was used to make ornaments for the tribal chieftains. These were very elaborate objects with complicated decorative motifs worked in embossing or punched freehand. The objects were characterized by the repetition of the designs used and by protruding hemispheres that were smooth or decorated, according to their size.

      In these regions, where the making of jewelry was directly dependent on what was obtained from local deposits, gold was the only material used. Usually the type of decoration, taken from imported models or introduced directly by European goldsmiths, persisted as a repertoire was acquired, with a tendency toward ever greater repetition. In other words, rather than an art form dominated by genuine native expression, this production has no relation to the local culture.

American Indian

Central (Central American and northern Andean Indian) and South American (South American Indian): pre-Columbian (pre-Columbian civilizations)

      The ancient peoples located in the region near the northern Andes (Andes Mountains) (including Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela) achieved a high degree of artistic evolution. Gold mines were abundant in this area, and the goldsmith's art was highly developed. The gold was worked not only by itself but also in alloys with copper, silver, and other metals. The oldest surviving products, attributed to the Chavín culture in Peru, date to as early as 1000 BC. The subsequent Moche culture (c. 400 BC–AD 500) and the Nazca culture (both in Peru) also produced gold ornaments of high technical quality.

      By the time Spanish explorers reached the region in the 16th century, they were astounded at the wealth and magnificence of the then-flourishing Inca empire. Unfortunately, the Spanish melted down most of the gold objects they found. Many examples remain, however—most of them discovered in graves. Study of these materials has revealed that there were several different centres of production and local styles.

      The richest gold and mineral deposits, which are still productive, were those in Colombia. It is not possible to establish definite dates for jewelry from Colombia and Ecuador, but an approximate chronology indicates the San Augustin zone as the oldest, followed by Chitcha. In the latter area, the “Quimbaya treasure” and objects from the upper Cauca River (Calima style) represent jewelry of the greatest importance and magnificence. Other significant centres in Colombia include the Muisca region; Calima, famous for its breastplates, tiaras, and brooches; and Tolima. Although not strictly part of the Andes region, the Coclé region in Panama was strongly influenced by the Quimbaya style. It is particularly known for its striking gold pieces set with precious stones, including emeralds, quartzes, jaspers, opals, agates, and green serpentines.

      In the civilizations of the Andes, gold was lavishly used on clothes. About 13,000 pieces of gold were found sewn into a single poncho from Chimú, Peru. On certain occasions the priests wore tunics (religious dress) made entirely of braided gold sheet applied to the cloth. One of the commonest ornaments worn by important personages and warriors was the nariguera, a gold ornament that was hooked to the nostrils and might be in the shape of a simple ring, a laminated disk, or an upside-down fan decorated with pierced work. The elite also wore pendants depicting gods or animals.

      The most adorned and decorated section of the body was the head. Although gold and other precious metals were components of these ornaments, feathers and other brightly coloured materials were the most important features—the more elaborate the trimmings, the higher the social rank and class of the wearer. Examples of such headdresses can be seen in the great sculptured reliefs found in some ceremonial places.

      Rings were rather rare, but there are necklaces with a seashell motif in different shapes arranged one after the other and necklaces with other stylized zoomorphic forms that are all alike. One of the most outstanding of these necklaces is from Chimú (May 21, 1968, Christie sale). It is composed of a row of gold beads to which are attached eight similar figures of a deity in a ritual pose (1100–1200).

      Outstanding artistic development during the pre-Columbian era also took place in the region known as Mesoamerica (Mesoamerican civilization) (including about half of present-day Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador). When the Spanish reached this area in the early 1500s, they found magnificent monuments, which had been partly invaded and destroyed by woods and brush, but extremely few and scattered people. The reasons that induced the early inhabitants to abandon those places are still unknown, and many potentially illuminating written documents were destroyed by the Spanish. Nevertheless, historical research has determined that the region was inhabitated from about 1500 BC first by the Olmec, then by the Maya, Mixtec, and other groups, and eventually—and until the time of the Spanish conquest—by the Aztec.

      Only a few examples of jewelry from this region survive, namely some finely carved jades, which apparently were considered more precious than gold. Works of the goldsmiths' art are rare, although of a high quality. A few examples owned by the Museum of the American Indian in New York City are noteworthy, especially a wonderful Mixtec necklace that proves the high degree of technical skill attained. The necklace is composed of 40 small segments in the form of a tortoise's back, and from each segment hang three drop pendants.

       Mixtec graves have yielded outstanding examples of objects such as gold pendants, jewels combined with turquoise mosaic, and quartz ear spools. The few examples that remain from the Aztec period suggest the stylistic influence of the Andes region. Of the decorative animal motifs, the most frequent is the serpent; of the ornamental motifs, the spheroid, disk, and sphere. Probably because the Mesoamerican area was poor in gold, objects made of this material date from about 1,000 years after those from the Andes (c. 14th century BC).

      It is thought that ornamental objects in precious materials from the pre-Columbian civilizations, especially the older ones, had some religious function in addition to being used in burial rites. Stylistically, pre-Columbian objects show an unusual amount of charming expressiveness. Symbolic concepts were transferred from stone and pottery to gold through transfigurations that enhanced the plasticity of the forms, displaying at the same time an awareness of structure and of compositional rhythms that forms the main appeal of these objects.

North American (Native American)

      The diverse forms taken by personal ornamentation are related to the type of life led by the numerous ethnic and tribal groups scattered throughout the vast American territory. The most highly developed tribes were those whose social organization permitted them to settle in one place for long periods of time, with the consequent evolution of religious and artistic activities.

      On the basis of archaeological finds, North American Indian territory was divided culturally into the following broad areas: the eastern forests, which includes the Great Lakes region and Florida, east of the Mississippi; the Great Plains, including the central part of the continent between the eastern forests and the Rocky Mountains; the Southwest, which corresponds to what are now the states of Arizona, New Mexico, southeastern Utah, and southern Colorado; the northwestern coast, from the bay of Yakutat in Alaska to the mouth of the Columbia River; and California, in the area included between the northwestern coast and the southwestern cultures.

      The Great Plains (Plains Indian) and California (California Indian) produced no jewelry, the former area because its slow artistic evolution involved primarily the decoration of clothing with leather and beadwork, and the latter because its tribes were economically at the preagricultural level and therefore lacking in forms of artistic expression apart from those associated with perishable materials. Judged on the basis of the archaeological data that has come to light so far, the highest artistry was achieved by the southwestern cultures, followed by those of the eastern forests and of the northwest.

      Personal ornamentation in all the native cultures of North America shows no connection with the pre-Columbian cultures of Central and South America. One of the most striking differences between the two is that in North America copper (copper work) was much more frequently used than gold (goldwork). In some parts of North America this metal may have been used before its use became known in the Western world, and at that distant time it was valued like gold.

      As far back as the Archaic period, the practice of decorating shells with carving or champlevé enamel work was widespread. Feathers and turquoise (used for mosaic) complete the list of precious materials available to the American Indians for personal ornamentation until the arrival of the white man.

      On the whole, in their limited diversity, forms of artistic expression became traditional for particular cultures and were perpetuated by them. Even today, attempts are still being made to keep them alive.

      In the southwestern cultural (Southwest Indian) area the first objects used for personal ornamentation go back to the first half of the 1st millennium AD and consist of bracelets made from a shell carved in the shape of a frog, exquisitely sculptured in miniature; zoomorphic subjects on auricular disks; rings with bird and snake motifs in pierced work; and other shell jewelry covered with turquoise mosaics.

      The Pueblo (Pueblo Indians) and Navajo tribes, which were part of the southwestern cultural area, made beautiful necklaces and pendants from turquoise mosaics, shells, and coral. The Pueblo Bonito discoveries document this activity from pre-Columbian times. At the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, the Navajo learned to work silver (silverwork) from Mexican craftsmen and developed this skill with great ability, reworking motifs of Spanish American origin in their Indian traditional style.

      In the Great Lakes region where the Woodland (Woodland cultures) culture was located, archaeological research has demonstrated the presence of copper ornaments as early as the 5th millennium BC. These consist of necklace beads formed of thin, narrow metal strips and of sheet metal in the shape of fish. The Hopewell (Hopewell culture) finds include bobbin-shaped copper earrings and engraved sheets of silver, dated between 200 BC and AD 400, together with ornaments that were sewn into clothing or inserted in headdresses. From the Mississippian (Mississippian culture) Period there are pieces of embossed copper sheet and breastplates, disks, and plaques made of copper and shell with a wealth of engraved ornamental motifs, such as birds, Sun symbols, isolated heads, human skulls, eagles, rattlesnakes, hands with outspread fingers and an eye designed on the palm, crosses, and figures of warriors.

      Beginning in the 17th century, the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Iroquois tribes in the New York state region hammered, shaped, and cut European silver coins to be used for jewelry of all kinds. Also worthy of note among the Iroquois are bone combs with handles carved in zoomorphic shapes.

      In the culture of the Indians on the northwest coast (Northwest Coast Indian), the influence of Arctic and even of Asiatic peoples can be observed. Persons of very high rank (social status) wore a characteristic type of headdress, which was made of wood, in a conical shape with wide brim, surmounted by sculptured human and animal figures. Another type was shaped like a crown or diadem with a rectangular plaque worked in relief placed in the middle of a leather forehead band from which ermine tails and bunches of sea-lion bristles stuck out. The sculpturing on these plaques is highly refined, and the rich shell inlay with which they are decorated makes them look like jewels. The engraving on combs is also outstanding.

      The sculptural style peculiar to this culture is characterized by a conventional, formal naturalism that is extremely vigorous and dynamic. Often the same object combines parts that are fully sculptured with parts in low relief, and the depth of the carving may vary greatly.

      Objects called copper coins, symbols of maximum power and wealth, were in the form of a shield made of copper sheet in a standardized shape (trapezoidal above and rectangular below). The upper half was taken up by a design such as a head worked in engraving or embossing.

      During the 16th century, European conquest and rule of the American continent interrupted development of the arts among the natives, who were forced to live under conditions that were far from favourable to the continuation of traditional artistic activities.

Guido Gregorietti

Additional Reading

Broad surveys include J. Anderson Black, A History of Jewels, rev. ed. (1981; also published as The Story of Jewelry); Guido Gregorietti, Jewelry Through the Ages (1969; originally published in Italian, 1969); Erich Steingräber, Antique Jewelry: Its History in Europe from 800 to 1900 (1957); Joan Evans, A History of Jewellery, 1100–1870, 2nd ed., rev. (1970), and Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Particularly in England (1922, reprinted 1976); Anne Ward et al., The Ring: From Antiquity to the Twentieth Century (1981; also published as Rings Through the Ages); Ernle Bradford, Four Centuries of European Jewellery (1953, reissued 1967); Fritz Falk, European Jewellery: From Historism to Modern Style (1985); and G. Mourey and A. Vallance, European Art Nouveau Jewelry (1969).Materials of the art are studied in C.H.V. Sutherland, Gold: Its Beauty, Power, and Allure, 2nd rev. ed. (1969); Robert Webster, Gems, Their Sources, Descriptions, and Identification, 4th ed., rev. by B.W. Anderson (1983); John Sinkankas, Gemstones of North America, 2 vol. (1959–76); and Graham Hughes, The Art of Jewelry: A Survey of Craft and Creation (1972, reissued 1984).Particular styles and periods are discussed in Cyril Aldred, Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian Jewelry of the Dynastic Period (1971); Reynold Higgins, Greek and Roman Jewellery, 2nd ed. (1980); Jamila Brij Bhushan, Indian Jewellery, Ornaments, and Decorative Designs, 2nd rev. ed. (1964); Ronald Jessup, Anglo-Saxon Jewellery (1950, reissued 1974); Priscilla E. Muller, Jewels in Spain, 1500–1800 (1972); Margaret Flower, Victorian Jewellery, new and rev. ed. (1973); John Haycraft, Finnish Jewellery and Silverware (1962); and Mary L. Davis and Greta Pack, Mexican Jewelry (1963, reprinted 1982).Books devoted to individual practitioners or describing particular museum collections and exhibitions include A. Kenneth Snowman, The Art of Carl Fabergé, 2nd ed. (1962, reissued 1972); Herbert Hoffmann and Patricia F. Davidson, Greek Gold: Jewelry from the Age of Alexander (1965); Christine Alexander, Jewelry: The Art of the Goldsmith in Classical Times as Illustrated in the Museum Collection (1928); Edward F. Twining, A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe (1960); Martin Holmes, The Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, 4th ed. (1974); Hugh Tait, The Waddesdon Bequest: The Legacy of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild to the British Museum (1981); and Hugh Tait (ed.), Jewelry, 7000 Years: An International History and Illustrated Survey from the Collections of the British Museum (1987; also published as Seven Thousand Years of Jewellery).Guido Gregorietti

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