Antique and Vintage Jewelry

From delicate, Victorian filigree necklaces to loud, diamond-studded chokers designed by jeweler to the stars Harry Winston, pieces of antique and vintage fine jewelry (British spelling: jewellery) are meant to stir the senses. That said, the appearance of these necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, and brooches has changed radically with the ages. For example, during the Georgian period, from 1714 to 1837, short handmade necklaces, cameos, and portraits of loved ones on pendants and brooches were in high demand among the upper classes. By the Victorian period, 1837 to 1901, demand for mass-market jewelry emerged—to keep jewelry affordable, semi-precious gemstones such as aquamarine and malachite were often used instead of sapphires and emeralds. In the United Kingdom, after the death of Prince Albert in 1861, mourning jewelry and pieces featuring sentimental motifs became popular. With Queen Victoria setting a royal example, black jewelry made out of a fossilized coal known as jet, as well as less expensive materials like black glass and a hardened rubber called vulcanite, were soon the height of fashion. People even wore pieces made of human hair as jewelry, whether woven into a genre known as hairwork or coiled inside a silver locket. By the end of the 19th century, though, most people were tired of mourning. Jewelry made in the Art Nouveau period from the late 1890s until the mid-1910s usually featured natural designs, as did Arts and Crafts jewelry, but flowers and the female form were particular trademarks of Art Nouveau jewelry. Glass and semi-precious stones were also common, as was the use of enamel. Concurrently, during the Edwardian period, which lasted from 1901 to 1910, delicate and elegant jewelry was the rule. Diamonds and pearls set in platinum were in vogue, as were chokers, negligee pendants, and long strings of pearls. One jewelry firm able to weather these trends, and set a few of its own, was Tiffany & Co. of New York. Tiffany designed the seed-pearl pieces Mary Todd Lincoln wore to her husband’s 1861 inauguration. Had the company’s work ended there, that alone probably would have earned a place in jewelry history. But during the Art Nouveau era, Louis Comfort Tiffany, who took over the company from his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany, kept the firm’s name alive by designing dragonfly brooches for New York’s high society. Meanwhile, in Paris, the French firm of Cartier, which was founded in 1847, had also cut its teeth in the jewelry business by providing baubles to the ruling class. Unlike Tiffany, which designed its own pieces from the get-go, Cartier began as a mere retailer of jewelry, but when one of your clients is the court of Napoleon III, that’s not so bad. By 1900, Cartier was producing jewelry of its own design, which it sold to the likes of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and King Edward of England. Between the mid-1920s and '30s, Art Deco grew in popularity and featured geometric lines, sharp angles, and bright colors. Diamonds regained popularity and pearls continued to be in vogue, worn in a string as either a necklace or a bracelet. After the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, Cartier blended Art Deco with Egyptian iconography when it integrated scarabs and other ancient symbols into its Egyptian Revival fine-jewelry pieces. Of course, New York and Paris we not the only centers of fine jewelry in the 20th century. The American Southwest was also fertile ground, although the jewelry made there by Native Americans has a complicated origins story. For the most part, non-Native businessmen, particularly Fred Harvey, were the ones who directed the design and production of Native American jewelry for tourists lured West by the railroad. These pieces were sold in Harvey’s hotels and at so-called “trading posts” located near the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad’s tracks. And where did these Native American jewelers get their jewelry-making expertise? Well, many Navajo learned the trade from the silversmiths living to their south in the Mexican silver-mining town of Taxco. That’s where, in 1931, an American named William Spratling opened a store specializing in Mexican jewelry. Like Harvey, Spratling directed local jewelers to produce pieces that he thought he could sell, in this case pulling pre-Columbian motifs into his jewelry designs. Concurrently, Scandinavian jewelry designers were riffing on their indigenous influences to guide their designs, from enameled copper to plique-à-jour. Aesthetically, the sensibility tilted toward both Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts, while their pieces were allowed to retain a sculptural quality that elevated them above mere ornamentation. Danish jewelry designer Georg Jensen, opened his own studio in 1904 at the height of both movements, and his work, as well as that of silversmith Mogens Ballin and many others, helped prepare the region for its eventual early embrace of Mid-Century Modern. By the time that movement took over, Jean Schlumberger of Tiffany was designing "Jackie bracelets" for yet another U.S. President’s wife—this time named Kennedy—while Greenwich Village artisans such as Sam Kramer and Art Smith, as well as Georg Jensen designers Henning Koppel and Nanna Ditzel, were producing pieces of fine jewelry that even the most modern woman would want to wear.