CategoriesArtistic Disciplines
Jewelry
Rings, necklaces, brooches, bracelets and other personal ornaments, from ancient beadwork and goldsmithing to modern houses and artist jewellery.
1 work · 10 related artists
About
People have strung shells into ornaments for tens of thousands of years; perforated shell beads from Blombos Cave in South Africa are around 75,000 years old. Ancient Egyptian goldsmiths inlaid pectorals with coloured stone, Etruscan craftsmen fused tiny gold granules onto surfaces, and Romans carved cameos in layered stone. Jewellery could protect, mark rank or keep a memory: Victorian mourning brooches sometimes held locks of hair.
Around 1900, René Lalique made Art Nouveau jewels of enamel, horn and glass, shaped as dragonflies and women-insects. Jewellery houses defined 20th-century luxury: Cartier's Art Deco pieces, Van Cleef & Arpels's "mystery" settings that hide their metal. Artists made jewellery too, as Alexander Calder did in hammered brass wire. A fine piece shows care where it is least visible, in the finish of the back, the security of the settings and the way it sits on the body.
