Victorian Jewellery 1837-1901
Victorian Jewellery 1837-1901 is associated with Queen Victoria adn the time when she came and sat to the throne in 1837 jewellery was romantic and religious and used for glamour purpose. Until mid century most western jewellery came from Europe, Victorian was well remembered for her love for gardening, which reflected in floral, hearts and animal including the insect motive of their jewellery. In addition serpents became very poular being a favorite of victoria it symbolized wisdon, eternity and EBEN Luck.
semi-precious stones like : garnet, amethyst, seed pearl, coral were popular in victorian period and opal (one of Victoria’s particular favorites.), With the discovery of new gold sources, new techniques such as engraving and filigree emerged and it became less expensive to work with gold.
In earlier victorian period 18 carat gold was most frequently used, post 1854 jewelry started appearing in step of 9, 12 and 15K also.
The unexpected death of Albert; queen Victoria’s husband, brought the whole nation into mourning. because of which stone like onyx and techniques like enameling brough black jewelry with get,into fashion.
Estate pieces from this period are rare and highly collectible. With the death of queen Victoria in 1901 england was ready for a new resurgence in fashion and jewellery.futther revolution in manufacturing. Including the staem engine made manufacturing even the larger quantity of jewellery possible, though with the result of lower quality.but the decade of extremes consvertism had ended now, resulting in sudden and profound break from tradition leading to the art noveau period of the early 20th century.
Although jewellery had been made by multiple methods of production for centuries, mid Victorian mass production in Birmingham (England), Germany and Providence, Rhode Island meant that standards were lowered. Victorian women rebelled when they saw some of the machine made jewellery on offer, although much of what has survived is of good quality. Many wore no jewellery at all, or bought from the artist craftsman jewellers who emerged at much the same time.
