NINETEENTH-CENTURY JEWELLERY
THE MODERN REVIVAL
Jewellery of the nineteenth century presents a very variegated picture
both as regards material and technique, as well as in the display of
every conceivable style. It is not so much a particular character of its
own that has marked the jewellery of each epoch of the century, as a
peculiar form of reproduction or rather reconstruction of older styles
of art, based for the most part on false traditions. The whole period
was an eclectic one, and the majority of its productions--the result of
nothing less than aimless hesitation and fruitless endeavour to revive
the forms of the past--display at least doubtful taste. Throughout the
greater part of the time France led the fashion, and every one of the
political changes she underwent left its mark on her artistic
productions.
After the desolate epoch of the Revolution, under which the whole
standard of jewellery was measurably lowered, a revival of something
approaching luxury was experienced under the Directory. This was
succeeded about the year 1800, owing to the stimulating dominance of the
First Consul, by circumstances of real luxury. The period dating from
Napoleon's accession to the Imperial Dignity four years later, till
about 1814, was one of considerable importance in the history of
jewellery.
The severe and academic influence of the leading and most popular artist
of the day, the painter David, and of his pupils, with their extravagant
taste for the antique, was universally felt. Yet while the antique
celebrated its triumph in all directions, the Empire failed to shake
itself entirely free from eighteenth-century styles. As far indeed as
jewellery was concerned, the classical revival cannot be said to have
been altogether unhappy; for its ornaments are not without a certain
charm. Like all else, they breathed the spirit of the past, and are not
less formal and rigid than the other art productions of the period.
It was under the short-lived reign of the associated kings, termed the
Directory, that the taste for the antique first became thoroughly
dominant. Jewellery of all kinds assumed classical forms. The few
individuals who were fortunate enough to procure them wore ancient Greek
and Roman jewels; the rest had to be content with facsimiles of objects
discovered at Pompeii, or simple copies adapted from representations on
early vase paintings, sculptures, or engraved gems.
So exaggerated became the enthusiasm for the antique that, following the
lead of Madame Tallien and Madame Récamier, the fashionables of the
period adopted in its entirety, without regard for differences of
climate, what they deemed to be classical costume, and appeared on
public promenades in Paris with unstockinged feet in sandals that
allowed them to exhibit jewels upon their toes.
[Illustration: _PLATE XLIX_ EMPIRE HEAD-ORNAMENTS]
The affected classicism of the Republic and First Empire stimulated the
use of engraved gems. Far from cameos and the less decorative intaglios
being considered out of place with fine precious stones, they often
occupied positions of honour, surrounded and mounted occasionally with
important diamonds. In the majority of cases, however, they were used
alone and were made up into special ornaments by themselves. Antiques
were worn when procurable, but the greater number of gems were of modern
manufacture, carefully studied both as regards technique and style from
ancient examples. Somewhat later, small mosaics, on which were figured
classical subjects or buildings of ancient Rome, were also employed.
These, together with cameos, generally on shell, were produced in
quantities, particularly in Italy, where cameo cutters and mosaic
workers still carry on a somewhat languishing trade in ornaments of this
nature, Venice, Florence, and Rome sharing in the industry of mosaic
jewellery; Rome, Naples, and the whole of Southern Italy in that of
cameos. The production of both kinds of objects is now in a sterilised
condition. They have entirely lost their earlier qualities, for the
reason that they find but little favour and have ceased to be worn by
the upper classes. Except during the height of the First Empire the
fashion for engraved gems never took a very thorough hold. Ladies have
seldom a taste for archæology. If a few, in accordance with the current
idea, affected a sober and refined style of ornament, the majority soon
wearied of the burden of cameos in the necklace and bracelet, and
preferred sparkling stones to the delicate cutting of the gem. The
general and instinctive preference for brilliant jewels did more than
anything to kill the attempted employment of antique forms and designs.
As regards technique, the metal-work of the early nineteenth century
generally displayed considerable poverty of material. The gold, if not
pinchbeck imitation, was usually thin, light, and of low quality, with
simple designs in the form of clusters of grapes. Borders of leaves and
flowers in the antique style were stamped and chased sometimes in
open-work, with small rose-shaped ornaments applied. Granulated, beaded,
and purled work was much employed, and the surface of the metal was
often matted. Artistic effect in chased work was produced by the use of
ornamental inlays, or rather overlays, of coloured gold.
Actual jewel-work and settings, as a rule, displayed good quality of
workmanship. The general tendency lay in the direction of the coloured
stones popular in ancient times--the topaz, peridot, aquamarine, and
amethyst; together with precious stones, such as emeralds, rubies,
sapphires, and diamonds, and with pearls. The latter were generally
reserved only for the most sumptuous ornaments, but were occasionally
used in conjunction with jewels of less value. The stones most commonly
used were carnelians, moss-agates, turquoises, garnets, pink and yellow
topazes, as well as coral, mingled together. Wedgwood ware and its
imitations, popular in the latter years of the eighteenth century,
continued for some time to meet with favour, while paste jewellery was
also worn to some extent.
On every species of jewellery the taste for the antique was clearly
visible. Ornaments for the head took the form of frontlets and diadems,
hair-combs, hair-pins, triple chains, and strings of pearls. Earrings
were in general use, together with necklaces, brooches, bracelets,
rings, and girdles. The chief head-ornaments were wide metal combs,
fixed in the hair in such a manner as to be visible from the front. The
general form of the Empire comb, with its upright rows of pearls or
coral, is well known, since a number of examples exist. At the same time
frontlets or _tours de tête_ were worn on the upper part of the forehead
and over the hair. These, enriched with pearls, cameos, or precious
stones, took the form of broad bands or coronets. Another ornament,
which did not, however, come into fashion till about 1820, was the
_ferronnière_--a band round the head, with a jewel in the middle of the
forehead. It was generally a fine gold chain, but might be made of
velvet ribbon or silken cord, or strings of beads. The origin of its
title has been given in connection with Italian jewellery of the
fifteenth century. Cameos and moss-agates entered largely into the
composition of necklaces as well as the various coloured stones
mentioned above. Cameos often assumed considerable proportions. They
were occasionally set with precious stones, and were linked together
with fine chains. Bracelets were much worn, three on each arm: one on
the upper part of the arm, a second just above the elbow, and a third
upon the wrist. They were usually composed of a number of small chains,
or even a band of velvet; while the clasp was formed by a cameo, or else
an amethyst, peridot, or topaz set in stamped and pierced gold. Girdles
for the most part were fashioned in the same manner as bracelets, with a
large cameo on the clasp.
[Illustration: _PLATE L_ EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY JEWELLERY]
The pictures in the gallery at Versailles afford perhaps the best idea
of ornaments in the Empire style; since jewellery is more clearly
represented on French portraits than on any others of the time. Among
the most striking of such portraits are those of Marie Pauline, Princess
Borghese, by Lefèvre, of Caroline Buonaparte, Queen of Naples, by Madame
Vigée-Lebrun, and of Madame Mère, by Gérard. The first has a high comb
and bandeau, earrings, and girdle, all decorated with cameos, the second
a parure of pearls and cameos, and the third a head-ornament mounted
with a single large cameo. The coronation of Napoleon in 1804 furnished
the painter David with the subject of a picture unrivalled in its
kind--"Le Sacre de Napoleon I^e^r à Notre-Dame," which is exhibited
in the Louvre. This grandiose production, besides being a truly epic
rendering of a great historical event, serves as a valuable document in
the history of jewellery, in that it represents jewellery of the most
magnificent kind carried by Josephine, the princesses, and the ladies of
honour. The Empress is shown wearing comb and diadem of precious stones,
brilliant earrings, and a bracelet on the wrist formed of two rows of
jewels united with a cameo. Her suite have, besides, necklaces and
girdles mounted in several cases with cameos. Josephine herself
possessed a perfect passion for engraved gems, and she actually induced
Napoleon to have a number of antique cameos and intaglios removed from
the gem collection in the Royal Library and made up into a complete
parure of jewellery for her own use.
A German speciality of the expiring Empire was the cast-iron jewellery,
brought into favour largely on account of the prevailing scarcity of
gold and silver. A foundry for its production was first set up in 1804
at Berlin, where articles of great fineness were cast in sand moulds. In
the year 1813, the time of the rising against the Napoleonic usurpation,
more than eleven thousand pieces of iron jewellery were turned out, and
among them five thousand crosses of the new order of the Iron Cross. In
that year appeared the well-known iron rings. During the War of
Liberation, when every man joined the Prussian regiments to fight
against the French, the patriotic ladies who remained behind laid at the
Altar of the Fatherland their valuable jewels, which were melted down
for the benefit of the national war-chest. For the articles thus
surrendered they received in exchange from the Government iron finger
rings bearing the words "Eingetauscht zum Wohle des Vaterlandes," or the
famous inscription "Gold gab ich für Eisen." In addition to crosses and
rings, other jewels, such as diadems, necklaces, brooches, and
bracelets, were executed in cast iron, open-worked and in relief
(Pl. LI, 8). Complete parures comprising a comb, necklace, earrings,
and bracelets are not infrequently met with, and the name of the
manufacturer, such as "Geiss, Berlin," etc., is sometimes found stamped
on them. Most of the work is in the antique taste, and is occasionally
adorned with classical heads in the manner of Wedgwood and Tassie.
Considering the material and method of production, the fineness and
lace-like delicacy of this iron jewellery is little less than
marvellous.
[Illustration: _PLATE LI_ BUCKLES AND NECKLACES LATE EIGHTEENTH
AND EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURIES]
Another kind of nineteenth-century ornament, particularly popular in the
first half of the century, was hair jewellery. It was favoured possibly
in some cases less by inclination than by that necessity which had
originally led the way for the use of iron and other less valuable
materials. Finger rings, bracelets, necklaces, and watch-chains were
plaited of the hair of the departed, brooches and medallions mounted
with it, and even ornamental landscapes constructed of strands of human
hair. Hair was worn as a gift of affection from the living; but it was
chiefly employed for mourning or memorial jewellery. It will be referred
to again when mourning jewellery is dealt with.
We enter about the year 1830 into the Romantic period--the days of the
heroines of Balzac, the days when Byron and Ossian were _à la mode_, the
days of a fancy chivalry and mediæval sentimentality, of Sir Walter
Scott, and above all of the Gothic revival. Gothic motives, rampant in
architecture, make their appearance also on bookbindings, furniture, and
other things, and influence jewellery to a certain degree. Among the
leaders of the movement so far as it affected jewellery were the
goldsmiths Froment Meurice, and Robin, whose productions, executed
in accordance with the Romantic taste, assumed the form of armoured
knights, on foot, or fully equipped on horseback, lords and ladies in
mediæval costume, and jewels which took the shape of compositions of a
similar "elegant" nature.
At this period cameos were still worn, but seldom of strictly classical
character. Sentimental hair jewellery likewise continued, as did the
iron jewellery. The latter, however, no longer displayed classical
forms, but debased Gothic designs. Chains of various kinds were in
considerable favour. They were usually looped up at intervals with
circular or oblong plaques of thin and coloured gold set with small
turquoises and garnets. With the development of machinery appeared thin
goldwork, ornamented with stamped and pressed designs. Work of this
kind, characteristic of its first decades, extended far into the
nineteenth century.
As far as men's jewellery is concerned there is little or nothing to
chronicle. Strangely enough, the masculine delight in splendid jewels
that had existed up to the end of the eighteenth century, came all at
once to an end, along with that older world on the ruins of which
Napoleon rose. Almost all that remained to them was the bunch of seals,
often of considerable size, that hung by a silken cord from the fob. It
is true that occasionally beaux and macaronis actually wore earrings.
But these were not employed solely as ornaments, but largely as the
result of a fanciful idea, still prevalent in certain quarters, of the
value of such objects against diseases of the eye.
Fashion next, about the middle of the century, harked back to rococo,
and imitated the style of Louis XV. It was rococo of a kind, but lay as
far from the eighteenth century as did Romantic Gothic from the Gothic
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Design for the most part was
deplorably bad, defects in this direction being passed off under a
glitter of stones.
Instead of the close setting which had so long satisfied the jeweller,
open setting for precious stones became universal. Countless old and
valuable ornaments perished. The diamonds and other precious stones were
picked out of them and transferred to newer settings, and the beautiful
old metal-work was ruthlessly melted down. Many fine jewels during the
course of the nineteenth century have likewise been spoiled and reduced
in value by their owners attempting to adapt them to a prevailing
fashion. Vast is the number of family treasures that have undergone the
fate of remounting. It is to be hoped that the new-born interest in the
beautiful work of earlier craftsmen may help to save what is left from
the same sort of destruction that the ancient churches of our land have
undergone as the result of ill-judged "restoration."
THE MODERN REVIVAL
Long prior to the developments that have taken place in recent years,
attention had been attracted to the artistic qualities of gold and an
impetus given to the manipulation of the simple material. It was early
in the "sixties" that notice was first drawn to the gold jewellery then
being executed in Rome, and the discoveries that had been effected in
the working of the wrought metal by the firm of Castellani.
The head of this famous family was the goldsmith Fortunato Pio
Castellani, one of the best-known jewellers and dealers of his day. In
1814, at an early age, he started a business in Rome, which he developed
about 1826 on the lines of the antique work. The process of production
of the old granulated gold jewellery of the ancient Etruscans--that in
which the surface is covered with minute grains of gold set with
absolute regularity--had long been a puzzle and problem to jewellers.
Castellani was deeply interested in the lost art, and searched Italy
through to find some survival of it. At last in St. Angelo in Vado, a
village of the Apennines, in the corner of the Umbrian Marches, he found
a caste of local goldsmiths who had preserved it in what seemed to be an
unbroken tradition. He transported some of them to Rome, and together
with his sons Alessandro and Augusto succeeded in imitating the tiny
golden grains of the Etruscans and soldering them on to the surface of
jewels. The work he accomplished in this direction has become famous all
the world over.
In 1851 Fortunato retired, and on his death in 1865 his property was
divided--Augusto retaining the business, Alessandro setting himself up
as a collector and dealer. Augusto, born 1829, carried on the traditions
of his father's atelier, and was afterwards promoted to the Directorship
of the Capitoline Museum.
Alessandro, the elder brother, was perhaps one of the most striking
personalities of his age. Born in 1824, he first assisted his father;
but his political opinions, which led him to take an active part in the
revolutionary movement in Rome in 1848, and implicated him in the
conspiracy of 1852, resulted in his imprisonment in the Castle of St.
Angelo; but successfully feigning madness, he was liberated and sent out
of the Pontifical States. He then proceeded to travel about exploiting
the productions of the Casa Castellani. Gradually he devoted himself to
archæological pursuits. His knowledge of these matters was profound, and
he became the finest expert of his day. He was continually collecting,
and dealt largely, his chief customers being the museums of Europe and
America. The finest of the antique jewellery in the British Museum was
purchased from him in 1872-1873. A few years before, in 1867, his
unrivalled series of peasant ornaments, gathered together from all parts
of Italy, was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, which also
made large purchases at the sale that took place after his death in
1883.
The art of filigree and granulation practised by Castellani was carried
to still greater perfection by another Italian, Carlo Giuliano, who was
largely indebted to the discoveries of his compatriot. Examples of his
work, with that of Castellani, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Since his death, his business house in London has been continued by his
sons.
Another Italian who has surpassed both Castellani and Giuliano in the
reproduction of the antique is Melillo of Naples. His jewellery, though
"copied closely from ancient models, has a certain modern _cachet_" and
is in fact "a translation of the most refined ancient art into modern
language."
An eminent English jeweller, whose name is worthy of record, was Robert
Phillips of London, who died in 1881. He also came under the influence
of Castellani. At the same time he was responsible for the production of
some of the most original work executed in England during the Victorian
era.
A forerunner in France of the modern movement in artistic jewellery,
and one entitled to a high place in the history of the art, was the
goldsmith Lucien Falize (b. 1838), who was a partner with M. Bapst,
crown jeweller of the Second Empire. He succeeded Bapst as official
goldsmith to the French Government, and died in 1897. Another great
French jeweller was Eugène Fontenay, author of the important history of
jewellery, who died in 1885.
Side by side with the improvement in taste which during the last few
years has prompted people to preserve old jewellery, and a genuine love
for its peculiar and indefinable attractions which has induced them to
collect it, the present age has witnessed a truly remarkable revival in
the artistic production of articles of personal ornament. The general
awakening that has taken place in the industrial arts has nowhere made
its influence more strongly felt than in respect to jewellery. Owing to
the example set by the highest artistic spirits, which has affected even
the ordinary productions of commerce, there has arisen a new school of
jewellery, the residue of which, when the chaff of eccentricity on the
one hand and coarse workmanship on the other is winnowed from it,
consists in works which combine the charm and sense of appropriateness
requisite to objects of personal adornment with qualities that mark them
as individual works of art.
The ornaments of the past reveal an elemental truth of art which it may
be to the ultimate advantage of the decorative artificer of modern times
to study and to imitate. They show, particularly in their most refined
periods, that the simplest materials and the simplest modes of
decoration can be associated with beauty of form and purity of design,
and that the value of a personal ornament does not consist solely in the
commercial cost of the materials, but rather in the artistic quality of
its treatment. In the revival of the arts in the latter part of the
nineteenth century the artistic styles of the past began to be carefully
studied, and for the first time were brought together and exhibited as
models. They have undoubtedly exercised a profound influence both on
design and technique. It is well at the same time to remember that
personal ornaments, as indeed all productions of former times, which are
thus shown in museums, must not be reckoned with from one standpoint
only. The intention of their public display is to afford material for
instruction, investigation, and inspiration, for the craftsman, the
student, and the "man in the street." Their function in this respect is
not only to produce artists and craftsmen, or even connoisseurs, but to
inspire the lay public with a love of beauty, and to induce a divine
discontent with the ugliness with which it is surrounded.
Though it is very well to use and reproduce the forms and motives of
the past, an indefinite persistence in that attitude is liable to be
construed as a confession of æsthetic sterility. But while empty
revivals and false adaptations are to be rejected, the reckless race
after originality, resulting in the eccentricity which is so rife in
modern art, should especially be avoided. It is the desire for
originality instead of a modest devotion to fine workmanship, "a love
for the outrageous and the _bizarre_, and a lack of proportion, both in
form and in choice of material," that has ruined much of the jewellery
produced under the _Nouveau Art_ movement.
If colour and form produced by a study of harmony and a limited appeal
to nature could be united to elaboration and minuteness of finish, with
symmetrical arrangements freed from purely mechanical detail of
ornament; if more insight could be obtained into the spirit which
produced those splendid fragments that have survived from the past,
there would be a gradual return to a style of work wherein the inherent
preciousness of material might be accompanied by a fuller appreciation
of its artistic possibilities, and a way opened to the restoration of
the art of the goldsmith to the honourable place it once held.
Apart from matters of design the new movement has resulted in great
changes in the artistic aspect of jewellery. In distinction to the
tendency hitherto prevalent which bids the metal mounting of jewellery
to be rendered almost invisible, the working of gold and silver has once
again become a matter of some moment. A second change, due to the study
of old models, has been the revival of enamelling--an art which offers
many an opportunity for the exercise of the craftsman's taste and skill,
and has once again resumed its proper position as handmaid to the
goldsmith. A third change has been the wider choice and employment of
stones. Till recent years only those stones that are reckoned as
fine--the diamond, ruby, emerald, and sapphire--have been allowed a
place in jewellery. Though their commercial value can never be set
aside, precious stones are now valued, as they were in Renaissance
times, for the sake of their decorative properties. The taste for colour
effects in jewellery has resulted in the adoption of certain gems not
very precious, yet sufficiently rare, while the artistic value of broken
colour in gems is beginning to be appreciated in purely commercial
productions. There is now a welcome tendency to use such stones as the
aquamarine, peridot, zircon, topaz, tourmaline, chrysoprase, and others
of beautiful colour and high decorative value. For a precious stone, as
has been truly said, "is not beautiful because it is large, or costly,
or extraordinary, but because of its colour, or its position in some
decorative scheme."
The present master of the jeweller's art is René Lalique of Paris,
universally recognised as the greatest of modern artists in this class
of the fine handicrafts. He possesses a perfect mastery over materials
of all sorts, even of such as ivory, horn, and mother-of-pearl, and
above all enamel, especially that in open settings. To his wonderful
dexterity of technique he unites a fertile imagination and infinite
resource of design in the direction of naturalistic forms, as flowers,
winged insects, and human figures.
The style of Lalique, freed entirely as it is from the forms of
tradition, is carried out by several artists of individual talent, such
as Lucien Gaillard, Gaston Laffitte, Georges Fouquet, Comte du Suau de
la Croix, Vever, René Foy, and Louis Bonny. It has, in addition, hosts
of imitators, whose productions are wrought with rare skill, but
display, nevertheless, singular disregard of appropriateness and
utility, and are further marred in many cases by eccentricities of
design.
Much original, if not always very attractive, work has been produced
also in Germany and Austria since the full expansion of the _Nouveau
Art_ movement about the year 1897. Among the first in Germany to display
activity in the design and production of jewellery in the new style have
been the artists Hirzel and Möhring, and Piloty of Munich. Van der
Velde, Olbrich, and Schaper and J. H. Werner of Berlin have all obtained
a reputation for their work in this direction. The movement has
been fostered with success in the leading art schools, under the
superintendence of Gnauth at Nuremberg, Hammer and Göss at Karlsruhe,
Graff at Stuttgart and Dresden, and Luthmer at Frankfort. The chief
centres in Germany for the production of jewellery are Pforzheim, Hanau,
and Gmünd. The leading craftsmen of Pforzheim are Zerrenden, Fahrner,
Friessler, and Stoffler; while Gmünd possesses the well-known jeweller
Hermann Bauer.
[Illustration: _PLATE LII_ MODERN FRENCH JEWELLERY]
Among the leaders of the new art movement in Austria are the sculptor
Gurschner, Dietrich, Prutscher, and Franz Hauptmann; while Elsa Unger,
Anna Wagner, and Eugenie Munk have carried out distinctive work on the
same lines. Belgium has produced some able craftsmen in the persons of
Paul Dubois the sculptor, Ph. Wolfers, and Van Strydonck. The modern
school of Denmark possesses the artists Slott-Möller, Bindesböll,
Magnussen, and Bollin.
England, the pioneer of the latter-day renaissance of the decorative
arts, can boast of a number of craftsmen of distinction in artistic
jewellery. Among the leaders of the movement whose style and
individuality have secured them recognition are Mr. H. Wilson, Mr. Henry
H. Cunynghame, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Dawson, Mr. C. R. Ashbee, Mr. Harold
Stabler, Mr. Edgar Simpson, Mr. Alexander Fisher, Mrs. Bethune, Mr. and
Mrs. Arthur Gaskin, Mrs. Newman, Mrs. Traquair, Mrs. Hadaway, Mr. and
Mrs. Partridge, and Mr. F. S. Robinson. One may also name H.H. Princess
Louise Augusta of Schleswig-Holstein, and H.H. the Ranee of Sarawak, in
addition to a number of others whose work has figured in exhibitions
such as those held by the Arts and Crafts Society. The name of Mr. A.
Lazenby Liberty, who has done much to foster new design in England,
likewise deserves mention.
Messrs. Tiffany of New York have shown how artistic design may be
combined with fine and rare gems--the natural instinct for which will
have to be gratified so long as jewellery is worn. A number of other
firms both in England and France have in recent years displayed
remarkable advance in this direction, also, as in the case of Messrs.
Boucheron, in a skilful combination of coloured stones, as well as in a
reserved use of enamel.
A hopeful sign for the future of this refined art is the thoroughness
with which it is taught in schools of art throughout the country, and
the eagerness and success with which it is practised also by a number
of gifted amateurs. The work produced, though far behind that of
continental craftsmen in point of execution, avoids many of the
extravagances of the "new art," and exhibits, for the most part, taste
and reserve in design, and adaptability to ultimate uses.