Jewels and the woman: The romance, magic and art of feminine adornment — John Shaqi
Jewels and the woman: The romance, magic and art of feminine adornmentOstier, Marianne
History
Jewels and the woman: The romance, magic and art of feminine adornment
Ostier, Marianne
Jewelry
The wars toward the end of the eighteenth century, culminating in the
French Revolution and the campaigns of Napoleon, shifted the ownership
but did not stem the manufacture or the collection of jewels. The
inventory of Mlle. Mars, taken in 1828, listed over sixty items, many of
them treasures in themselves. Notable among these were: a necklace of two
rows of brilliants (diamonds), forty-six in the first row, forty-eight in
the second. Eight bunches of sprigs of wheat tipped with brilliants (that
is, eight aigrettes) totaling about 500 brilliants weighing 57 carats;
a garland of brilliants that could be worn as one bouquet or divided
into three flower brooches, totaling 709 brilliants and 85¾ carats; a
sévigné—mounted in colored gold a central large topaz was surrounded by
brilliants, with three drops of opals also surrounded by brilliants, the
whole set in gold studded with rubies and pearls; a pair of girandole
earrings of brilliants—in each, from the large stud brilliant were
suspended three pear-shaped brilliants, united by four smaller ones; a
pair of earrings—from the large stud brilliant of each hung a cluster
of 14 smaller brilliants, like a bunch of grapes; a parure of opals,
consisting of a necklace, a sévigné, two bracelets, earrings, and a
belt-plate. And Mlle. Mars, though a noted comic actress and a favorite
of Napoleon, was by no means the outstanding society woman of her day.
_Into the Nineteenth Century_
By 1840 many new designs—frets, crescents, stars—were employed to show
off the popular diamonds. These were still preeminent in the magnificence
of the marriage of Napoleon III in 1853, but his Empress Eugénie revived
the use of strings of pearls for the evening. Diamonds were then worn in
similar strings, called rivières, necklaces of a succession of single
stones, matched or graduated, with a very large stone in the center. A
stone of ten carats was no longer considered large; the diamond must be
at least fifteen carats, and preferably nearer forty. The large solitaire
became popular, not only for engagement rings, but as the clip-stone on a
pin or pendant, from the diamond often hanging a pear-shaped pearl.
The late nineteenth century developed an electicism, a freedom of choice
among the various modes of the past, that continues into the jewelry
design of our own day. Toward the end of the century, perhaps as a
by-product of the school of _les diaboliques_ in literature and art,
there developed a desire to shock the bourgeoisie, and with it a certain
desire for novelty, manifested in such bizarre items as live beetles
worn as pins, or brooches of a live tortoise with gems set in its shell.
_The Twentieth Century_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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