The Discovery In 1725 Of A New Source Of Diamonds-00-7101

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Diamonds

The discovery in 1725 of a new source of diamonds in Brazil was to have a profound effect on jewelry of the 18th century. The increased availability of diamonds and the innovations in stone-cutting led to greater prominence for stones, and the mounts of stone-set jewelry became more frail

Jewelswere often made with sepa­rate elements that dismantled and could be worn in different combinations. In addition, large valuable stones were mounted in removable set­tings so they could be utilized in more than one piece. The foiling of diamonds to alter the colour was also practised, with soft pastei shades being desirable.

The eighteenth-century workshop The jewelry industry by this point had become clearly structured and organized. super specialized workshops had developed (with apprentices, journeymen and masters) who sup-plied retail jewellers, the absolute majority of whom by now no longer made their own stock on the premises.

Nineteenth century

In ...
... the nineteenth century jewelry became more approachable than in previous periods, with the advent of machine-made jewelry and the begin-nings of mass production. It was a time of great industrial evolution and social change and jewelry designs of this century were influenced by die expansion of archaeological discoveries and nationalism. International exhibitions, like the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, cultivated artistic and technological innovations. By the end of the century, ideas of design reform had led to the founding of two new movements in Britain and Continental Europe: Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau. America took to the fine jewelry stage as large American luxury houses such as Tiffany gained prominence.

Romanticism and nationalism Romanticism was a reaction against the order and rationality that typified Classicism in genera! and the Neoclassicism of the eighteenth century in particular. It was characterized by an appreciation of the beauty of nature and a preoccupation with folk culture, and national and ethnic origins. An important idea of Romanticism was the asser-tion of nationalism; this was to become a central

theme of Romantic art and greatly affected the jewelry of the time. Subsequently there was a revival of wholly historie sryles, such as Gothic and Renaissance, or elements of sryles such as the naturalistic forms of the Baroque and Rococo, as nations tried to establish their identities.

Archaeological style

Archaeological jewelry was often copied closely from surviving finds, and it is this that distin-guishes it from earlier Neoclassical jewelry, which by equivalence was uninformed in relation to real Classical jewelry artifacts. This style of jewelry was specially favoured by intellectuals of the 1860s to 1880s because it provided a coun-terfoil to the opulent diamond naturalist jewelry. Gold was the principal material, in keeping with the ancient provenance: ancient Etruscan and Greek jewelry was the most influential. Egyptian motifs were popular at the Paris Exhibition of 1897, following excavations undertaken during the digging of the Suez Canal. The Castellani family of goldsmiths/jewellers were well-known leaders of this style and their efforts had a politica! leaning: they featured Classical items found in Italy from antiquity onwards and used this array of Jewels to symbolize Italian unity. Eugène Fontenay of Paris had no such political message to convey. He mixed elements from different periods, producing supremely elegant jewels, and even incorporating brilliant-cut dia­monds, which would never have occurred on a Classical piece.

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