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Georgian Jewelry

The term Georgian refers to an era in English history during the reign of the four King Georges I-IV, from 1714 - 1830. Like the term Victorian (used for jewelry during Queen Victoria's rule), it is accepted in use as a term that refers to certain styles of jewelry.

While this time period saw a number of stylistic changes and is a broad, sweeping category, the label is often used for jewelry with certain characteristics. Sometimes the term is applied to jewelry of other countries (France, Italy, United States for example) but its use is not entirely appropriate, but generally still accepted as a means to refer to a time period and certain styles of estate jewelry.

Eighteenth Century

For the privileged and elite, the century saw a great increase in evening pursuits as improvements in candles gave rise to longer burning and brighter candles. Thus balls and celebrations of extravagant proportions rose to exceptional heights...giving rise to a divide between day and evening jewelry. Women often wore pearls, garnets, moss agate or colored gems or paste in daytime. The most formal evening events, courts, balls or receptions were the only times appropriate for diamond jewelry.

Closed backs were used on almost all gems and paste stones. Open backs were known, but most examples we see today are closed. The full art of stone cutting and allowing light through a gem to reveal its refractive properties had not yet flourished.

In addition, most stones were then foiled. Foiling is a metal coating, sometimes colored, and painted on the back of a stone to enhance its brilliance. Popular cuts were the rose cut, the old mine cut, and a few table cuts.

Brilliant cuts also gained popularity. For colored gems often a flat cut was used - the top being flat with a few facets on the edges.

For metals, silver or gold was in use, but platinum was not yet discovered and white gold was not found in jewelry. Rose gold, yellow gold, silver, and sometimes green or red gold were employed. Most diamond jewelry was almost always set in silver; the sentiments of the time were that the silver color of the metal enhanced the properties of diamonds, where a gold surrounding did not.

Be that as it may, the backs of jewelry and ear wires were often gold to prevent tarnish on skin and clothing. Colored gems were set in gold. Mounts or bezels for jewels were often set in a closed setting, a cut away setting, or a very early claw setting (often seen for early large pastes). The first two mountings show a good bit of metal and come up around the sides of the stone, encasing the stone in metal.

The earlier part of the century stylistically saw a more ornate form of jewelry, complex and frilly designs. As the years progressed and advanced into the next century, the forms turned to more neoclassical inspiration of simpler, geometric and formal derivation. It was also a great century for paste. Even Marie Antoinette has her own paste jewelers - it was not just for those who could not afford real gems. Some examples of the themes and motifs used in the earlier 18th century were bows, floral designs, giardinetti (garden), and feathers while later saw classical themes such as arrows, quivers, lyres, intaglios, and geometric forms.

Types of jewelry worn were the stomacher (a large element worn like a huge brooch at the center of the stomach just below the breasts and trailing down the front); aigrettes (elements for the hair); girandoles (three drop earrings); pendeloque earrings (a bow and drop); necklaces sometimes secured by ribbons; rings; slides - bracelets often worn in pairs usually slipped on a ribbon; chatelaines; and buckles and buttons - for men for shoes and breeches and clothing.

Nineteenth Century Through 1830

Toward the end of the earlier century and into the next, wars shattered through Europe and affected life and thus jewelry. Often gold and precious gems were in short supply as these items were given toward the war effort. Jewelry used less metal, sometimes very thin, and canetille came into use. Canetille using tiny wires wrapped to make a showier jewel with little metal. A romantic era arose, sentimental and mourning jewelry again became popular at the end of the 18th century and into the 19th. Regard rings, symbolic gems, tokens of affection, lockets of hair all found great popularity. Gems were small and less significant. Queen Victoria's reign brought about many changes in temperament and thus the jewelry and fashion followed suite ending a grand and elegant era in jewelry production.

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