Victorian jewelry is well-known for its academic value and also for the inimitable touch that it offers to antique charm. Even today casual buyers associate the majority of old jewelry pieces to the Victorian era owing to its unique characteristics. In fact it influenced the fashion of the masses, as the predominant design themes found in the Victorian jewelry were borrowed from native origins such as trees, flowers and birds. The early Victorian jewelry included delicate designs, lights and elaborate engravings.
Ultimately, the Victorian jewelry that became notable evolved as heavier and with more conservative designs, especially the two popular designs originated during the Victorian period, were known as Repousse and Cannatille. Repousse was identifiable owing to its solid forms that had fluted and raised edges giving the pieces of jewelry a characteristic of massive quality, while the Cannatille jewelry employed gold wire strands to wound and twist into elaborate designs.
The romantic period initiated with the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne and her marriage to Prince Albert became an impetus. The techniques of the Victorian jewelry were characterized by using techniques such as piercing, filigree, and so on. Thin plates and gold sheets were used, besides other gemstones included pink topaz, blue zircon, citrine, ruby, amethyst, garnet, sapphire, aquamarine, emerald and peridot. The Victorian jewelry also included popular natural materials such as lava, bog oak, tortoise shell, vulcanite jet and ivory. The late Victorian era got influenced by the Italian, Greece and Egyptian archeological expeditions that brought light to the west in the form of an array of ancient jewelry. Once again designers capitalized the public imagination and some of them such as Giulano and Castellani were noteworthy as they were much sought after.
The common Victorian jewelry motifs had sentimental lockets enclosing a hair lock of the loved one and quite often serpents were seen as the eternity symbol. Other sentimental themes included love birds, clasped hands, love knots, hair jewelry, miniatures and mizpah. Jewels displaying such sentimental motifs had concealed messages for instance, a crescent moon meant honeymoon and made an appropriate gift to a new bride from her husband on their wedding night.
Victorian people were captivated with flowers and attached symbolic meaning to each flower such as Lily of the valley denoted sweetness, Pansies represented thought, Yellow Poppy for success and wealth, Violets represented modesty, and so on. The early Victorians enjoyed inner meanings in the jewelry and after the death of Prince Albert, the jewelry became more austere such as heavy, dark stones as they were set in black enamel.
People coming on sports travel also showed interest in Victorian jewelry that depicted sporting themes as men and women pursued the sporting subjects. Slowly, intaglio crystals were reverse painted and exhibited hunting themes such as foxes, pheasant, rabbits, horses and dogs into the forms of jewelry. This collection also included buttons, brooches, stickpins, cuff links, pendants and watch fobs. Even today, the Victorian jewelry has its recognition and rules the hearts of many.
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