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
So far as balancing the brooch to the build is concerned, the principles
are very simple. A woman with a heavy figure should avoid small and
delicate clips and select large ornamental designs. A woman of slighter
frame should wear small clips. A brooch pinned high on the bodice will
seem to give the wearer added height.
More than other jewels, the clip presents the personality. It challenges
the attention and invites the judgment. If it is well chosen, so that
it truly establishes the wearer’s nature and taste, it may be worn with
confidence and pride.
CHAPTER 10
_Watches_
_Queen Elizabeth I_
The watch was an article of utility that became an article of fashion,
hence was woven into a jewel. Queen Elizabeth I of England owned more
than two dozen watches, some dangling from her girdle, one at her wrist.
Four of them were gifts from one courtier, the Earl of Leicester. All
were elaborately designed in various shapes, with cameos or many jewels.
They were changed according to the costume. The Queen had a special page
whose duty it was to wind them.
_Princess Sophia_
Even more watches were in the possession of Sophia Dorothea of
Brunswig-Lüneberg, though she came to have little need of them. The wife
of the Crown Prince of Hanover, she became involved in intrigue and
was accused of a liaison with a Swedish nobleman; she saw her marriage
annulled, then spent thirty-two years in prison. Her released husband
became George I of England; her son, George II; her grandson (through a
second Sophia Dorothea), Frederick the Great of Prussia. In the heyday of
her beauty and gaiety at the Hanoverian court, Princess Sophia possessed
over fifty watches, many of their cases made of a single large stone,
such as a lapis lazuli or an onyx.
_Early Forms_
Because the early watches were in the main large and ugly, handsome
cases were designed for them. As each watch was made individually, a
painstaking jeweler could create a smaller instrument, such as the
bracelet watch. Mme. de Pompadour wore a watch in a gold finger ring, set
round with diamonds.
Watches were also made with extra devices. Some, at a time set in
advance, would ring an alarm. Some would when pressed chime to reveal the
present hour. In all these early watches, accuracy was not the goal. In
fact, it was not until about 1680 that most watches were equipped with a
minute hand; before that, one pointer marked the passage of the hours.
These watches were worn, by gallant gentlemen, less for checking their
business, of which they had little, than for adding to their finery, of
which they had much. The time they could spare from the adornment of
their persons they devoted to the neglect of their duties. Often indeed
there was a watch at each end of the chain, and both might be taken out
at the same time, with ostentatious comparing of their accuracy. William
Cowper in eighteenth-century England neatly pinned such gallants:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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