Early Victorian jewellery divides into two categories. There is the formal parure richly mounted with precious stones, in naturalistic designs of leaves, flowers, and bull rushes. Cheaper alternatives were available in amethysts, aquamarines, and topazes in showy but light filigree and stamped gold settings. Then there are the eclectic enameled gold ornaments inspired by Gothic and Renaissance decoration of which the masters were Francois Desire Froment Meurice and Lucien Falize, in Paris and Carlo Giuliano in London. Bracelets assume great importance, especially as tokens of sentiment. After the discovery of the mines of South Africa in 1867, diamonds became the pre-eminent elements in formal jewellery. These stones are massed together into stars, crescents, bowknots, Greek key, floral and leaf patterns for head and bodice ornaments, while single stones, large and small, are linked together into rivieres for the neck. |
