SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY JEWELLERY (GENERAL)
Through the whole jewellery of the late Renaissance there runs a gradual
and profound change of taste. Slowly and by imperceptible stages the
earlier style, with its minute enamelled figures in high relief, gives
place to a desire for sparkling diamonds, and a pleasure in the glitter
of faceted stones. In the sixteenth century, diamonds, rubies, and other
stones played a comparatively insignificant part in jewellery, and were
prized mainly for their decorative value, but during the course of the
seventeenth century a more prominent rôle was gradually conceded to
precious stones. Used singly at first, in table-cut form, to give a
centre of interest or a note of colour, they came finally to be arranged
in juxtaposition and long rows. A complete change was brought about in
the whole character of jewellery by the prominence thus given to the
precious stone--a position it has retained ever since.
From the commencement of the seventeenth century Germany began to lose
the position which, during the greater part of the century previous, she
had occupied as a jewel-producing centre; while the Thirty Years' War,
by handicapping her industries, caused the jewellers to seek employment
elsewhere. It was mainly from France that the new ideas in the form of
ornaments emanated.
The French are fortunate in possessing separate words to distinguish
different kinds of jewellery: _bijouterie_, a general term applied to
all jewellery formed of gold, enamels, and precious stones; and
_joaillerie_, used for jewellery composed of stones along with a minimum
of metal-work. By the revolution of taste in the later days of the
Renaissance the _joaillier_ gradually superseded the _bijoutier_; while
the two crafts of the silversmith and the jeweller replaced the ancient
craft of the goldsmith.
Changes in the mode of wearing clothes, and in the materials employed
for them, had an enormous influence on jewellery. In place of the velvet
and brocade that prevailed during the Renaissance, damask came to be
worn, together with an extravagant taste for lace and ribbons. The
wearing of the silken stuffs that began to be issued from the factories
of Lyons, and of the lace that formed their accompaniment, necessitated
the use of ornaments more in keeping with these materials; with the
result that the jewellery of the period assumed an open and lace-like
character, suitable also for the display of precious stones.
At first coloured stones were used--the ruby, sapphire, and the emerald;
but soon the diamond held sole possession of the field. In Renaissance
ornaments this latter gem played only a secondary part, and was employed
solely for the sake of contrast, but it now appeared as the chief object
in view, and formed the ornament by itself, all other parts of the
jewel, the setting, and possible addition of other stones, being wholly
subordinate to it.
For the first general employment of the diamond in jewellery one must
look back to the fifteenth century, to the invention of the art of
cutting that stone, which is generally credited, in spite of Laborde's
opinion to the contrary, to Louis de Berghem of Bruges in the year 1475.
From that date until the beginning of the seventeenth century every
diamond, as is seen both by jewels and their designs, was one of two
forms: either the "point," a four-sided pyramid produced by polishing
the faces of the native octahedral crystal of diamond and making them
exactly true and regular; or the "table," in which the point of the
crystal is reduced to a square or oblong plane, the opposite extremity
being also in plane form, but of smaller extent, with sloping faceted
edges. This simple cutting did so little to augment the brilliance of
the diamond that the jewellers of the sixteenth century had to depend on
the _tinctura_ or foiling of the stone, in which art Cellini in his
treatise, with his characteristic appreciation of his own merits, tells
us that he particularly excelled.
The change of taste in the seventeenth century may be attributed to the
opening up of the diamond fields of Golconda on the southern borders of
the State of Hyderabad, at the beginning of that century, and to the
enterprise of the French travellers, Tavernier, Chardin, and others,
who, during their frequent voyages to Persia and India, dealt largely
in precious stones. These travellers succeeded in establishing new
commercial relations, which led to the introduction into Europe of
abundance of precious stones and particularly diamonds; while the
narratives of their journeys, furnishing more exact knowledge of the
quality and value of the products of the East, attracted towards
precious stones a new interest.
Owing to the abundance of material imported from the East, the market
for precious stones assumed an entirely different aspect; while the
quantity and beauty of the material thus at their disposal spurred on
the stone-cutters towards the improvement of their technique, until at
the end of the century they arrived at the true cutting of the diamond.
Besides the "point," which was but rarely used, the table-cut diamond
alone was employed until the commencement of the seventeenth century.
About that time there came into use the "rose," a half-crystal, flat at
the base and with a convex top covered with a number of small facets.
Stones faceted in this manner were at first mostly small and unimportant
and cut very irregularly into four or six facets.
Between the years 1641 and 1643, Cardinal Mazarin, a great lover of the
diamond, is said to have encouraged the promotion of experiments by the
Dutch lapidaries which led to the true "rose" cutting. Anyhow, a more
systematic method of faceting in sixteen facets--the _taille en
seize_--began to be employed about that time. This process, though it
left much to be desired, was an immense improvement, and set forth the
qualities of the stone in a way that had not been possible by the forms
previously in use. "Roses," together with "tables," as the designs of
Gilles Légaré and his contemporaries show, lasted until the invention of
the "brilliant" at the commencement of the eighteenth century by the
Venetian, Vincenzo Peruzzi, though rose cutting was popular for some
time after, and is still used for certain stones.
The "rose" leaped into fashion at its first appearance, and the taste
for diamonds and other precious stones seems to have dominated under
Louis XIII and Louis XIV, when they became the principal objects in
jewellery. Gold was worked into the form of garlands, flowers, and all
sorts of designs for the purpose of mounting precious stones and setting
off their beauty. The enormous increase of luxury in this direction was
entirely in keeping with the whole conception of an absolute monarchy as
developed by Louis XIV, who made it the duty of the grandees of France
and Spain to wear their whole property, in the form of glittering gems,
and to carry the value of lands and forests upon their own and their
wives' apparel when they appeared before the eyes of their sovereign.
Though actual examples of the seventeenth-century jewellery are rare,
at any rate in public collections, we can become acquainted with its
characteristics by the numerous prints bequeathed by the goldsmiths and
draughtsmen of the time. These prints, like those of the sixteenth
century, were not invariably the work of their designers, since it was
no uncommon practice for the master-goldsmith to have his designs
multiplied for use in his own workshop, and for general circulation, by
placing them in the hands of an engraver. As a rule the nationalities
of existing jewels may be in some measure determined by means of the
designs from which they were executed. But it is often difficult to make
clear distinctions in this manner, owing to the continual artistic
interchange which brought the fashions of one place to another, and
caused the methods and ideas of the craftsmen to become common property.
The bi-lingual inscriptions which one finds on the frontispieces of many
of the pattern-books or sets of designs then published, prove that they
were intended for international use.
The first attempts to base the composition of the ornament exclusively
upon the effect of stones arranged in definite forms, without granting
the setting of the plastic metal any independent part, are found in some
of the prints of Daniel Mignot, of the year 1590. Mignot, probably of
French extraction, was a goldsmith of Augsburg, where between the years
1590 and 1616 he produced a number of highly important designs for
jewellery, which form a link between the old and the newer styles.
While following the artists of the late sixteenth century in the
representation of figure designs in cartouche-shaped ornaments formed of
flat strapwork curves characteristic of the older school, he presents
engravings of pendants, earrings, and aigrettes, in which the stones are
set in juxtaposition.
[Illustration: _PLATE XXXIX_ ENGRAVED DESIGNS FOR JEWELLERY
BY DANIEL MIGNOT]
That the transition to the newer forms was slow, is shown in the works
of the goldsmith-engraver of Amsterdam, whose models for pendants,
signed with the initials P. R. K., and dated 1609 and 1617, are formed
of elaborate open scrollwork of tendril design, almost destitute of
stones. Exhibiting features more in keeping with those of Mignot are the
designs of Paul Birckenhultz of Frankfort-on-the-Main (1617). They are
of fine quality, and take the form of aigrettes and earrings set with
precious stones and elaborate oval pendants terminating with pearls and
ornamented with scroll ornaments intended for execution in enamel (Pl.
XL, 4). Birckenhultz is the last of the German school of designers to
model his work on the productions of the sixteenth-century masters.
Henceforth one must look for designs chiefly to France, where an
entirely new type of ornament for jewellery, such as is found in no
other art production of the time, was brought into existence by
endeavours to associate leaf patterns with a number of stones. Its
characteristic is the use of a sort of pea-pod or husk ornament, termed
_Schotenornamentik_ in German, and known generally by the French name of
_genre cosse de pois_ (pea-pod style). In the designs of the time this
formal ornament is largely employed for elaborate aigrettes; but owing
to the jewels executed from such designs having been set with stones,
the result has been that change of fashion has suffered scarcely a
jewelled example to survive. As a consequence, the objects existing at
the present day chiefly represent enamelled miniature-cases and
pendants. The number and variety of engraved designs for this kind of
ornament in the form of jewelled bouquets or palmettes, chiefly for
aigrettes, dating from the first half of the seventeenth century is
surprising, considering that it remained a comparatively short time in
use. One of the chief advocates of this style is Pierre Marchant, who
worked in Paris about 1623. His rare designs for aigrettes, and wreaths
for the borders of pendants, are most graceful, and show a form of leaf
ornament which is extremely happily adapted for materials in which the
precious stone had to play a prominent part (p. 306). Another Frenchman
who employed it is Pierre Labarre (1630), goldsmith to Louis XIV, who,
together with a well-known jeweller, Julien Defontaine, had apartments
in the Louvre. Amongst other French designers were Jacques Caillard
(1627), Baltasar Lemersier (1626-1630), Claude Rivard (1592-1650),
François Lefebure (1635-1661), and Gédéon Légaré (1615-1676), to whom as
"orfévre-esmailleur," together with Pierre Bain, Louis XIV in 1671, on
the suggestion of Colbert, granted quarters in the Louvre. Designs of
the same nature were executed in Strasburg by P. Symony (1621) and Hans
Mosbach (1626), and in Holland by Jacques Honervogt (1625). The
foregrounds or bases of nearly all these engravings are remarkable for
the landscapes and for the quaint and vigorous genre figures in the
style of the painter-engraver, Jacques Callot, that enliven them.
Of all the goldsmiths of the time the best known is Gilles Légaré of
Chaumont-en-Bassigny, who was jeweller to Louis XIV, and worked in Paris
about 1663. His series of designs, entitled _Livre des Ouvrages
d'Orfévrerie_, is perhaps the most interesting of the kind produced
during the seventeenth century. These fine compositions, when formed of
precious stones, show knots and interlacings for clasps, pendants, and
earrings, in which diamonds are fully displayed in rose-cut forms. As
models for objects not composed entirely of stones, we find seals,
rings, bracelets and chains decorated with ribbons and bows mingled with
monograms, and emblems, such as death's-heads. Together with these
appear tasteful arrangements for enamel-work in the form of natural
flowers of great charm and delicacy. To these last reference will be
made later. Contemporary with Légaré was the painter and engraver
Balthazar Moncornet, who worked at Rouen and Paris. His book of
designs, of which he was probably the inventor as well as engraver,
entitled _Livre nouveau de toutes sortes d'ouvrages d'orfévries,_ was
published about 1670[173]. The jewels, in the form of pendants,
earrings, and brooches, are composed of stones set in various ways; the
last plate is a miniature portrait of Louis XIV set as a brooch. All his
designs are accompanied by garlands of natural flowers.
[173] Reproduced by Quaritch in 1888.
[Illustration: _PLATE XL_ DESIGNS FOR JEWELLERY BY GILLES LÉGARÉ
AND PAUL BIRCKENHULTZ]
Complete as was the change which was brought about owing to the
prominence given to the precious stone, it must not be supposed that the
enameller's art was by any means neglected. Though it cannot be compared
with that in the best productions of the Renaissance, the enamel-work
applied to seventeenth-century jewellery is, nevertheless, worthy of
close attention.
Enamel executed by the champlevé method was much employed. The technical
process known as champlevé was performed in two ways. By one method the
surface of the gold was simply incised with designs, and the grooves
thus made filled with enamel. By another method only thin lines of the
metal were reserved to form the design, and the remainder of the field
cut out to receive the enamel. This latter system resembles in
appearance the well-known cloisonné; but the metal strips that form the
partitions between the enamel, instead of being inserted, are a solid
part of the metal base. Commonly employed on jewellery from the middle
of the sixteenth century, it remained in general favour, together with
the simpler form of champlevé, till about the third decade of the
seventeenth century, when it gave place to enamel-work of an entirely
different kind.
For jewellery intended to be carried out by this champlevé method, or
on rare occasions to be covered with translucent enamels, we have at
our service again a number of dated designs. These engravings, known
as _Schwarzornamente_ or niello ornaments, are in the nature of
silhouettes. The patterns, reserved in white upon a black ground, are
composed of curves of flat and broken strapwork. The designs are
occasionally for complete jewels, but most of them take the form of very
small motives intended as patterns for the shoulders of finger rings, or
for the borders, frames, or other details of jewels. Some engraved
plates are made up entirely of such motives; on other plates they appear
as details, either within a complete design or upon the field outside
it. Germany and the Netherlands furnish the earliest examples of these.
Several dating from the latter part of the sixteenth century are by
"monogrammists," who signed their engravings with their initials, and
whose names are mostly unknown--such as the German master A. C. of
the year 1598. Among recognised engravers in this style are the
following:--Of the German school: Arnold Jörg (1586-1596), Corvinianus
Saur (1590-1597), the rare Hans Hensel of Sagan (1599), Daniel Hailler
(1604), Jonas Bentzen (1615), and Daniel Mignot (1590) and P. Symony
(1621), both of whom placed these motives on the field of their plates.
Of the Netherlandish school is the well-known Michel Le Blon, called
Blondus, goldsmith at the Court of Queen Christina of Sweden, who was
born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1587 and died at Amsterdam in 1656. His
designs in silhouette, the earliest of which, in the British Museum,
is dated 1605,[174] were in great demand, and appear not only on
knife-handles, but on oval and octagonal box-shaped pendants--presumably
watch-cases. Also of the same school are: the rare master, Hans van
Ghemert (1585), Hans de Bull (1590), the monogrammist P. R. K. (1609),
and Guillaume de la Quewellerie of Amsterdam (1611-1635). In addition
there is Giovanni Battista Costantini of Rome, who published his
_Ornementi per lavorare Giorje_ in 1622 and 1625.
[174] _Burlington Magazine_, VIII, p. 130, 1905.
[Illustration: _PLATE XLI_ PATTERNS FOR JEWELLERY AND ENAMELLED
JEWELS FROM SIMILAR DESIGNS]
The French goldsmith-engravers, who produced designs in the "silhouette"
manner intended for jewels that were to be enamelled by the champlevé
method, include Jehan Vovert (1602), an anonymous engraver A. D. (1608),
Jacques Hurtu (1614-1619), Stephanus Carteron of Châtillon (1615),
Pierre Nolin (1620), and Jean Toutin (1619) and his son Henri (1628).
The most important of these is the goldsmith and enameller Jean Toutin
of Châteaudun, whose plates--six in number, dated 1618 and 1619--are
filled with charming motives for watch-cases or lockets, to be carried
out in enamel. They are ornamented with patterns reserved in white on
black ground in the form of trailing leaves and tendrils, partly in the
"pea-pod" style, and accompanied by lively genre figures in various
attitudes. Perhaps the most attractive of these plates is that which
represents a jeweller--probably Toutin himself--firing a jewel which he
holds in the furnace by a pair of long tongs, while above is figured a
model of the actual jewel--an octagonal box-like pendant (p. 289).
Toutin, who appears to have been an experimenter in enamels, is entitled
to distinction as the discoverer of a new process of using them. The
process consisted in covering a plate of gold or copper with an opaque
monochromatic enamel, on which designs were painted with colours, opaque
and fusible, and of greater variety than had previously been employed.
This method of enamel painting, extensively used for jewellery, proved
to be peculiarly suitable to the representation of natural flowers which
came into high favour about the same time.
The employment of naturalistic flower designs, as displayed on the
margins of manuscripts, was one of the features of late Gothic art. The
same tendency with regard to flowers was manifested on the enamelled
jewellery of the fifteenth century, the most striking example of which
is the wonderful necklace seen on the Flemish portrait of Maria
Baroncelli in the Uffizi Gallery. Renaissance ornaments on the whole did
not favour naturalistic floral patterns, though flowers enamelled in
full relief are occasionally found, as on the border of the Phoenix
Jewel in the British Museum.
The general return in the early part of the seventeenth century to
flower designs for the decoration of jewellery is associated with a
curious phase in the social history of the time that accompanied the
deep interest then taken in flowers and horticulture. Among flowers, of
which the Dutch have ever been enthusiastically fond, and never tired of
growing and of painting, the most prominent position was occupied by the
tulip. From about the year 1634 the cultivation of the tulip became a
perfect craze in Holland, and "Tulipomania" like a violent epidemic
seized upon all classes of the community. Gambling of an almost
unparalleled nature was carried on in the bulbs, and the flower became
fashionable everywhere. In the bouquets which the enamellers arranged
with great taste, and painted with extraordinary skill, the tulip is
always prominent.
This and many other flowers, and occasionally fruits, were painted
in the same manner as a picture, on an enamel ground of uniform
colour--generally white, and sometimes pale blue, yellow, or black.
Small plaques enamelled and painted thus are popularly known by the name
of "Louis Treize" enamels, though the majority of them were produced
after Louis XIII's death in 1643.
About 1640 it became the custom occasionally to model the design in
relief with a paste of white enamel, which was afterwards painted with
vitreous colours according to nature. Towards the middle of the century
the background of the flowers was pierced and cut away, so that every
single flower, exquisitely modelled and coloured, stood out by itself.
In addition to tulips of every variety, and hyacinths, sunflowers, and
roses, all kinds of lilies were in favour, especially the tiger-lily,
the "crown imperial," and different species of fritillaries, whose
beautifully spotted or chequered blossoms were rendered in their natural
colours with striking fidelity. Flowers executed in this realistic style
for jewellery were arranged chiefly in garlands and festoons, in the
manner of the wreaths painted by Jan Brueghel round several of Rubens'
pictures, the flower pieces of such Dutch and Flemish painters as Jan de
Heem, Van den Hecke, Daniel Seghers, and Van Thielen, and the wood
carvings of Grinling Gibbons (himself Dutch by birth), which display the
same remarkable realism.
Among the goldsmiths and draughtsmen of the time who have left designs
for jewels in painted enamel are the Germans Heinrich Raab and Johann
Paulus Hauer, both goldsmiths of Nuremberg. Their engravings, with
natural flower ornamentation very finely designed and executed, were
published about 1650. They comprise crosses, étuis, scissor, watch, and
scent cases, and pendants--star- and bow-shaped, and set each with
a pendent pearl. Work in the same direction by the artists of the French
school is of great importance. Gédéon Légaré, though he practised the
pea-pod style, is the first to show a decided preference for natural
flowers in his engravings, which date from about 1640. He is followed by
three famous masters of flower ornament--Balthazar Moncornet, Gilles
Légaré, and Jean Vauquer. Vauquer worked at Blois between 1670 and 1700,
and like many other engravers of jewellers' designs, was a jeweller and
enamel painter by profession. He was a pupil of Morlière of Orleans, who
also worked at Blois. His fine plates of flowers and ornamental foliage,
engraved after his own designs and entitled _Livre de fleurs propres
pour orfévres et graveurs_, were published in 1680.[175] Vauquer was an
enamel painter of pre-eminent ability, and one of the greatest
exponents of the day of the art of representing natural flowers.
[175] Reproduced by Quaritch in 1888.
Of the designs of Moncornet (_c._ 1670) and Gilles Légaré (_c._ 1663)
for jewelled ornaments we have already spoken. Moncornet, a great lover
of flowers, accompanied his jewels by charming garlands. With him and
Vauquer and Légaré must be associated the renowned enamel painter Jean
Petitot (1607-1691), who was first an enameller of jewellery. So highly
skilled was he as a painter of flower designs and foliage on rings and
other ornaments, that on going over to England in 1635 he entered at
once into the service of Charles I, where he brought to perfection his
famous enamelled portraits.
Several actual examples have survived of the enamel-work of Gilles
Légaré, whose designs--the best-known of this time--reveal a charming
feeling for natural flower ornaments. His _chef d'oeuvre_ is generally
considered to be the garland of flowers painted in enamel in open-work
relief that surrounds a miniature by Petitot of the Countess d'Olonne in
the collection of Major Holford at Dorchester House. This splendid
piece, on which the tints of the flowers are rendered with striking
fidelity, was formerly in the collection of a great French connoisseur
of the eighteenth century, P. J. Mariette. At his death it passed into
the possession of Horace Walpole, who counted it as one of his special
treasures. It joined the Dorchester House collection after the
Strawberry Hill sale in 1842. If this magnificent enamel-work be by the
hand of Légaré, and we may take Mariette's word for it that it is,[176]
this clever craftsman must have worked for Petitot; for another very
fine example of the same kind of work, a wreath of enamelled flowers
finely modelled and painted, surrounds a miniature by Petitot in the
possession of the Earl of Dartrey.
[176] Mariette, _Abecedario_, IV, p. 133.
To sum up the characteristic styles of seventeenth-century ornament
which we have endeavoured to describe, the first feature is the
general preference for precious stones, and especially diamonds, and
the use of the "pea-pod" ornament for displaying them. From this style,
practised by Marchant and many others, we pass, secondly, to the
"Schwarzornamente" or "silhouette" designs of Le Blon and Toutin
employed for champlevé enamel. Thirdly comes the development of
naturalistic flower designs, and the application of these to the painted
"Louis Treize" enamel evolved by Toutin, and perfected by Petitot,
Vauquer, and Légaré.
[Illustration: Jean Toutin in his workshop, firing an enamelled jewel.]