Time Periods
Victorian
1837-1901
The longest reigning monarch in British History, Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire for more than half a century. It was during her reign that society and jewelry design transitioned from the ways of the middle ages to the beginnings of the modern age. Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire during its peak; she was therefore, the ruler of the western world as we know it. Victoria set the fashion trends for the entire world to follow.
The Queen loved jewelry and the world's jewelry designers soon copied what she wore. Queen Victoria was married with a serpent engagement ring (a symbol of good luck) and she loved Scottish jewelry. Soon rings, bracelets, pins etc. were being designed with serpent motifs. Scottish jewelry was characterized by brooches and pins often made of silver; sometimes of gold The stones used in these pieces were those local to Scotland; Quartz, carnelian, banded and moss agates, and others.
The Early Victorian period was also characterized by cameos (often made of shell), rose cut diamonds (when they could be found), and elaborate gold mountings. Gold was very rare at this stage of history so the mountings were worked with incredible detail and made to look massive, but were in fact, extremely thin and light.
It was the death of the Queen's husband, Prince Albert, in 1861, which brought about the fashionable mourning and sentimental jewelry. Black and white materials characterized mourning jewelry. Black onyx and black enameling were used as were seed pearls (considered to be baby tears). Often a lock or woven piece of hair was featured as an integral part of the jewelry. Regard or dearest jewelry were pieces young couples often exchanged when separated for long periods of time. These items often hadstones whose first letters spelled out Regard or Dearest i.e. ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby and diamond.
During the latter part of the Queen's reign, archaeological discoveries greatly influenced jewelry design. One such discovery was of Etruscan jewelry. These pieces had fine gold granulation, which the modern jeweler could not reproduce. It was the Italian jeweler Castellini who found a remote village in the mountains of northern Italy where the ancient art of gold granulation had been passed down for generations. Castellini took the process back to Rome and made his fortune reproducing Etruscan jewelry.
It was in the last part of the Victorian period that we see the pronounced trends toward a modern society and modern jewelry. Society was already well into the industrial age. The wealthy people of Europe and the United States had electric lights in their homes, diamonds had been discovered in abundance in South Africa, gold was more plentiful, and the growing middle class had money to spend.
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