The Style of Antique Jewellery

The Style of Antique Jewellery

Antique jewellery is popular with collectors and people looking to wear something unique and stylish.

You can find a great selection of antique jewellery at most antique fairs and there is always a chance to pick up a valuable piece that has been missed by the experts.

Generally, an item is classed as an antique if it is over 100 years old. You can date silver and gold pieces manufactured in Britain by checking out the hallmark.

The style of antique jewellery varies a great deal depending on its age and is characterised by the fashions and trends of the day.

Georgian period 1714-1837
This period produced high quality and individual jewellery with a high level of craftsmanship. Style often draws on natural elements such as birds, leaves, flowers and feathers and often features added embellishments of bows and pear shaped drops. Georgian jewellery tends to be expensive owning to its age and the quality of materials used. Gemstones are popular in this period.

Victorian period 1837-1901
Romanticised natural shapes, personally engraved silver pieces and grisly memorial jewellery such as lockets with the hair of a loved one, typify the Victorian age. The influences of the far-flung empire also gave some jewellery an oriental flavour. This style called Japonaiserie was very popular and was produced in Britain.













Edwardian period 1901-1915
An affluent period for many, platinum was used for the first time in jewellery. Diamonds and pearls had become more readily available in the early 1900s and became popular. In general, Edwardian style jewellery is light and delicate and sometimes draws on Art Nouveau and Japanese inspired designs. Tiffany and Faberge produced high value pieces much sought after today.

Art Nouveau style 1890-1915
Art Nouveau style runs alongside much of the Edwardian period but can be classified as a style of its own.
Both natural and mythical subjects are popular in Art Nouveau jewellery. Butterflies, dragons, dragonflies, insects and sea creatures, stylised women with long flowing hair are typical subjects. The art Nouveau style looked to nature for inspiration and semi precious stones such as pearls were very popular.

Art deco style 1920-1935
Strong angular cubist shapes and bold contrasting colours epitomise the jazz age. High quality jewellery pieces made of platinum and palladium could be decorated with diamonds and contrasted with the new plastic material Bakelite or onyx jet for dramatic effect. Cartier were the leaders in art deco jewellery design




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British Decorative silver styles and dates - part 3

From Gold and Silver Hallmarks

To understand and collect Silver it is important to handle and view as much of it as you can.

By examining and comparing Silver close up you can see and notice details that can’t be conveyed in a picture.

It is also important to have an understanding of the historical styles of the silversmiths. This helps to classify silver and also to date the Silver you are looking at.

Although not all the styles are listed here, the list that follows represents the most popular British silver decorative styles.

Arts & Crafts

The Arts and crafts movement came into being with the founding of the Art Workers Guild in 1884, followed by the Arts and Crafts exhibition society four years later.  It was not only an aesthetic movement but also a social one; expressing the widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of mass produced items. An admiration for folk art and for the old guilds of medieval craftsmen was also apparent. Large silver manufacturing companies realized that a precious metal and mass production did not really work well together so they turned to artists and designers for guidance.

The principle beliefs of the Arts and Crafts movement was that items should always be what they seemed, no jugs disguised as castle turrets etc, the decoration should enhance the piece not conceal it, silver should never be made to do something out of character.  The hand hammered finish is one of the main characteristics of this style. The smiths encouraged the inequalities of surfaces and as a result the pieces catch the eye in a way the precision and symmetry of machine made objects do not.

Its ideas were started by John Ruskin and given expression by William Morris, the movement also influenced workers such as Charles Robert Ashbee. Ashbee believed that good design and craftsmanship could not come out of mechanical and industrial organizations. This could be said about silversmithing as the use of machinery was by no means essential.  He put his ideas into practice in 1887 when he founded the School and Guild of Handicraft, shapes were kept as simple as possible.

Aesthetic

Characterised by oriental style engraving and applied decoration. Often incorporating bamboo, birds of paradise, cranes, butterflies, and stylized fan-work. Was at its height during the 1860's through the 1880's, but became over-elaborate and was left  behind by major interest in the cleaner lines of the Arts & Crafts movement.

Art Nouveau

This style was first introduced to England circa 1890, and was a product of the Arts and Crafts movement started by William Morris et al and the pre-Raphaelites.  It was a revolt against the mass produced wares of the Victorian era and was adapted to silverware showing free flowing lines, often asymmetrical, with intertwining floral patterns, insects and female faces depicting a great influence from Japanese Art.

The main characteristic seen in most Art Nouveau pieces is a long line with a quick curve at the end this has been said to be reflective of the social mood of the time. Eventually it was its own extravagance that led to its demise.

Art Deco

A style that became popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it was a movement against the naturalistic feel of the Art Nouveau designs.  Art Deco drew together various elements, such as structured floral motifs, stylized curves, geometric shapes and abstract patterns.  These ideas ran simultaneously with the cubist movement in fine Art and similarities of the bold graphic shapes are obvious.

Modernism

In the 1950s there came about a complete change in style. Post-war Britain had a renewed interest in form, with the emphasis on sleek modern shapes.  Form did not necessarily have to follow function, form was the most important factor. The early 1960s saw the Modernist ideal of pure line and form, together with unadorned surfaces challenge the traditional equation of high style.

The admiration for hand made items did not blind the new generation of craftsman against the potentials of mass production, their aim was to balance mechanization and hand finish so that silver was again being put to its best use, as a metal for items of luxury and decoration.

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Understanding Art Nouveau Silver

From Gold and Silver Hallmarks

In the 1880s and 1890s, a new style spread across Europe and the United States - Art Nouveau. 

Unlike the austere Art Deco that eventually supplanted it, Art Nouveau emphasized flowing lines and organic, asymmetric forms. Many Art Nouveau designs featured stylized naturalism, with floral patterns, dragonflies, snails, and women with long, flowing hair wearing sheer gowns.
 
Many silversmiths produced pieces in the Art Nouveau style, but its impact was not as substantial on silver production as a whole as later styles were, since Art Nouveau’s aesthetics and methods did not lend themselves to mass production. Indeed, some of the most elaborate pieces of Art Nouveau silver took more than 90 hours to manufacture.

Silversmiths working in the Art Nouveau style generally utilized two main techniques in tandem: repoussé and chasing. With repoussé, a silversmith shapes the silver by hammering it from the back. In the chasing process, he or she uses essentially the same process but on the front side of the silver. Together, these techniques meld the silver into its final shape without removing any of the actual metal.

Two companies producing silverware in the Art Nouveau style were Gorham & Co. of Providence, Rhode Island, and Tiffany & Co. of New York. Both companies were highly influenced by Asian (especially Japanese) aesthetics.

One of Gorham’s most exquisite products was its martelé line of sterling silverware, which featured fluid, floral designs. Each piece of martelé was handmade, whether it was a vase, letter opener, candlestick, mug, or bowl.

Unlike British companies, American silversmiths were not held to the sterling hallmark standards of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, which even today mandates with the power of British law that sterling silver be 92.5 percent pure silver and 7.5 percent copper and other trace elements.

Thus, Tiffany & Co. could produce an array of Art Nouveau-style products, like ornate vases and teapots, marked as “sterling silver and other metals.” Despite the fact that these pieces did not technically meet the British standards for sterling silver, they often exhibited fine craftsmanship and have become valuable over the years. Gorham produced many pieces with a similar marking.

English Art Nouveau practitioners included Liberty & Co. and Omar Ramsden, whose output included bowls, belt buckles, candelabra, cigarette cases, jewellery, match holders, clocks, and centrepieces. Only the finest of these were hallmarked as sterling silver; those that were not often featured coloured enamelling for decorative effect.

Interestingly, the Art Nouveau period also saw the development and spread of the picture frame, since the 1880s witnessed the release of cameras intended for amateur photographers. Picture frames, however, generally had a low silver content.

Art Nouveau went out of style around the start of World War I, but patterns remained popular after the period itself ended, so maker’s marks and hallmarks give the collector the most reliable clues to a piece’s origin.

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