Jewellery

I

Introduction

Jewellery, personal adornment worn since ancient times by people of all cultures, as ornaments, as badges of social or official rank, and as emblems of religious or other belief. In its widest sense the term jewellery encompasses objects made of many kinds of organic and inorganic materials such as hair, feathers, leather, scales, bones, shells, wood, ceramics, metals, and minerals. More narrowly, and as used here, the term refers to mounted precious or semi-precious stones and to objects made of valuable or attractive metals such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, and brass. Jewellery has been worn on the head as crowns, diadems, tiaras, aigrettes, hairpins, hat ornaments, earrings, nose rings, earplugs, and lip rings; on the neck as collars, necklaces, and pendants; on the breast as pectorals, brooches, clasps, and buttons; on the limbs as rings, bracelets, armlets, and anklets; and at the waist as belts and girdles, with pendants such as chatelaines, scent cases, and rosaries. Much present knowledge of jewellery is derived from the preservation of personal objects in tombs. Information about the jewellery of cultures in which objects of value were not buried with the dead comes from portraits in surviving painting and sculpture. See Diamond; Enamel; Gemstones.

II

Egyptian Adornments

The ancient Egyptians were familiar with most of the processes of ornamenting metal that are still practised today. They produced skilfully chased, engraved, soldered, repoussé, and inlaid jewellery. They commonly worked in gold and silver and inlaid these metals with semi-precious stones such as cornelian, jasper, amethyst, turquoise, and lapis lazuli and with enamel and glass. Their jewellery included diadems; wide bead necklaces or collars; square pectorals; hoop, hinged, or bead bracelets; and rings. Many Egyptians wore two bracelets on each arm, one on the wrist and one above the elbow. A particularly popular ornament was the signet ring. Motifs—the scarab (beetle), lotus, falcon, serpent, and eye, for example—were derived from religious symbols.

Vast quantities of jewellery have been found in Egyptian tombs. Especially notable are personal ornaments from the tomb of Tutankhamen (18th Dynasty, 1570-1293 bc), now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

III

Middle Eastern Jewellery

Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian tombs of the 3rd and 2nd millennia bc include a great quantity of gold, silver, and gem-set headdresses, necklaces, earrings, and animal amulet figures. A well-known example is a royal diadem from Ur made up of thin gold beech leaves (British Museum, London).

Fine gold and silver jewellery was also made in Anatolia, Persia, and Phoenicia. Techniques included granulation (surfaces decorated with clusters of tiny grains of gold), filigree, inlaid gems, and cloisonné and champlevé enamel. Evidence of Egyptian influence on Phoenician work and of Mesopotamian styles on Persian work suggests widespread trade or other contact.

IV

Greek and Roman Jewellery

Artisans of the Minoan period, although working in Troy and in Crete, at opposite ends of the Aegean region, executed earrings, bracelets, and necklaces of a common type that persisted from about 2500 to about 500 bc, the beginning of the Classical period of Greek art. Typical work consisted of thin coils and chains of linked and plaited wire, and thin foil formed into petals and rosettes. Stamping and enamelling were common. Free use was also made of gold granulation and filigree. Inlaid stones were rare. Prevailing motifs were spirals and naturalistic patterns based on cuttlefish, starfish, and butterflies. Jewellery found at Mycenae and in Crete, and now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, includes a great number of small gold discs, perforated so that they could be attached to clothing, and gold diadems made of long oval plates covered with repoussé rosettes. See Aegean Civilization.

Archaic Greek jewellery and Etruscan and other Italian jewellery made in the period between 700 and 500 bc was almost entirely inspired by Egyptian and Assyrian examples imported by Phoenician merchants. The techniques remained fundamentally the same as in the preceding period; embossed or stamped plates were the basic element in the work; granulation continued and was developed in Etruria to an extraordinary degree of refinement. A handsome 7th-century bc Greek necklace from Rhodes consists of seven rectangular gold plaques bearing winged figures in relief and edged with gold balls (British Museum).

In the Classical Greek period (5th and 4th centuries bc), granulation went out of fashion. Enamel reappeared and filigree became important; Classic Greek jewellery was delicate and refined. Plaited gold necklaces bore flowers and tassels; hoop earrings with filigree discs and rosettes became popular. In the succeeding Hellenistic phase, pendant vases, winged victories, cupids, and doves became common motifs. At the same time, an important innovation was the introduction of large coloured stones, especially garnets, at the centre of designs. This scheme was developed by the Romans, who multiplied the variety of stones and set them in rows bordered with pearls.

Enamelling was common in Roman jewellery, and the art of cameo cutting reached the peak of its virtuosity. Cameos, often of great size, were produced in large numbers. A fashionable form of jewellery was the fibula, a brooch resembling a safety pin. Rings were extremely popular and at the height of the empire were often worn on all ten fingers. Exotic ornaments made of amber were also in great demand. Towards the end of the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century ad on, necklaces and bracelets were formed of gold coins set in elaborate mountings of arcaded patterns; Classical work died out.