During the sixty-four years of Queen Victoria's reign it is possible to find examples of every imaginable material being used to make jewellery, and some unimaginable, like human teeth! The discovery of new metals and stones, the development of new techniques and the revival of old ones, put a vast range of possibilities at the disposal of the designers, and this opportunity to experiment was seized by many of them. If the newly rich middle-class consumers lacked the educated taste of the eighteenth century aristocratic patrons, they did at least release the minor arts from the stranglehold of the opinions of the legendary 'man of taste'. Jewellery design has rarely been so inventive, before or since, as it was from the fifties of the last century to the beginning of the first world war, and if some of the inventions were not entirely successful that was only to be expected. — Charlotte Gere

•• = chapter in Charlotte Gere's Victorian Jewelry.

General

Brooch with cameo of medusa Micomosaic brooch with Medusa

Neo-Egyptian Revival

Castellani and the Classical Revival

Medieval Revival

Mourning Ring with a skull painted under the crystal Brooch with cameo of medusa

Celtic Revival

Bar Brooch with Heart-shaped Pendant by the Gaskins Mourning Ring with a skull painted under the crystal

Neo-Renaissance Revival

Arts and Crafts

Art Nouveau Jewelry

Mourning Jewelry

Mourning Ring with a skull painted under the crystal

Reviews of books and exhibitions

Bibliography and Web Resources


Last modified 24 January 2015