Retro - the last Antique Epoque

The Retro jewelry period began in the 1930s during the depression years and lasted until 1950. Retro is often called Cocktail Jewelry due to unusual mixture of stones and bold, highly polished gold golds (mostly rose, yellow and green). Retro jewels often feature massive, emerald-cut aquamarines, citrines and amethysts, accented with smaller rubies, sapphires and diamonds. Yellow gold quickly became the metal of choice as platinum was unavailable during the war times, as well as natural gemstones. They were successfully replaced by synthetic ones. Retro bracelets, watches and necklaces reflected the glamour and enchantment that Hollywood inspired during times of crisis. The movies provided a wartime escape into a world of fantasy and romance that was "larger than life". Clips and brooches in the 40's were swollen to a spectacular scale. The ribbon bow was the most popular motif, often highlighted in the center with a calibré cut ruby or sapphire knot.
In the mid thirties, Van Cleef & Arpels designed a flexible interlocking honeycomb bracelet with a large ornate buckle. It was named the "Ludo" bracelet after its designer Louis "Ludovic" Arpels. It was actually inspired by some of the early Victorian gold mesh garter bracelets. This would become one of their most popular pieces of those times. It was copied by many other jewelry manufacturers and continued to be in great demand throughout the 40's.
Here are some significant features of the era:

• Square shapes and emerald cut stones.
• Massive gems, including synthetic rubies, emeralds and sapphires.
• Bold, highly polished yellow gold.
• Birds, baskets of flowers, dancers and other serene images were common motifs.

Charms came into vogue during this era and were worn in large quantities on link bracelets. Illusion settings in engagement rings with carved settings, gave the look of a much larger diamond for a modest price tag. These beautiful pieces were favored by the economy minded women of the 1930's and are just as popular today. These designer pieces are highly collectible to this day.

Art Deco

The "Roaring Twenties", so called "The Jazz Age", was a time of rapid change. U. S. women finally got the right to vote with passage of the 19th amendment. Prohibition, cocktail parties, wild dances, and new art forms must have seemed strange to many people used to life before the First World War. Eventually, fashion reflected the fact that women were more independent than ever before. Dresses were short and straight in new, thin fabrics with dropped waists. New lifestyles demanded for jeweled cigarette cases, cigarette holders, jeweled handbags and makeup cases. Old ideas of art and design continued through the Art Deco era but were combined with new stone cuts (emerald cuts, marquises, and pear shapes), platinum was used more and more often.

Art Deco jewelry is often bold and angular - forming geometrical shapes. Women again wore multiples of rings, bracelets, necklaces, but in ways different from the past. In addition to precious stones, jewelry was made of paste, coral, crystal, and onyx.

An innovation of the Deco era was the Duette or Double-clip brooch: wide variety of looks could be created with one piece of jewelry that could be worn as a single brooch or taken apart to wear as two pieces. The style for earrings was for long drops. These worked well to accent short hair and straight lines of dress.

Rudolph Valentino, the film star, helped create popular interest in wristwatches. Made in white gold, yellow gold, or platinum, they were often accented with pave' set diamonds, triangular cut sapphires, other cuts of gemstones or enamel. Pocket watches were on their way out.

Some features of Art Deco Era:

• Cubism and Geometric Designs
• Carnelian Onyx
• Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds and Sapphires
• Amber Platinum
• Long-drops earrings
• Pins and brooches

Edwardian Era

The Edwardian period was born when Queen Victoria died and her son Edward became king. During this period, expensive gemstones such as diamonds, emeralds and rubies and elaborate designs became highly fashionable.
This era lasted only for a decade, but greatly affected the world of jewelry: new technology allowing faster manufacture of items reduced costs and made jewelry available to more people than ever before. Fine jewelry of the Edwardian era used a lot of Diamonds, white Gold, and Platinum.
Although Platinum had been available earlier, it had been very difficult to work with so the new technology made it more practical for jewelry craft. The lightness of design was also made possible through the use of mill-grain and Invisible settings, as well as by new gem stone cutting techniques.
Necklaces of all kinds were very popular:
- Negligee styles are necklaces, either with two pendants or a necklace without a clasp worn draped around the neck with the ends looped.
- The Sautoir - very long necklace made of beads that fall below the waist; these often have tassels on the ends.
- Lavaliere necklace is one that has a pendant suspended from a thin chain. These are the most common types of necklaces found from this era.
Here are some other distinguishing features of Edwardian Era:
1.Various necklaces, especially popular "dog collar" necklace worn by Alexandria.
2.Great number of diamonds, emeralds and rubies, especially on brooches worn in multiples.
3.Unusual shaped pearls.
4.Sports motifs.
5.Peridot became very popular as King's favorite stone.

Art Nouveau

The "Art Nouveau" (fr. "new art") movement was one of the first departures from classical art and design towards modernism. The 'Modernism' and Art Nouveau movements occurred during what was known in France as the "Belle Époque," or "beautiful era" period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.This time period did not last too long, but created many sought after collectibles, art, architecture and jewelry.
The Art Nouveau movement focused heavily on the themes of nature, fantasy, and the female form. Exotic floral motifs with animals, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, peacock feathers and marsh plants were combined with graceful feminine imagery or fairies, mermaids and nymphs, complete with their waves of twisting hair.
Here are some distinctive features of the period:

• Semi-precious stones gained even more popularity than diamonds: the aesthetics of design were considered more important than value of materials, moonstone, opal, amethyst, citrine, peridot and pearls were widely used.
• Emphasis on the designer as artist motivated using of enameling techniques in jewelry, such as cloisonne (partitions formed by gold wire into which enamel is poured); basse-taille (in which an engraved design in the metal is covered with, but still visible through, a transparent enamel) and plique-a-jour (in which the backing metal is removed from the translucent enamel after firing, resulting in stained glass effect).
• Nature motif: butterflies, dragonflies, flowers and birds, enameled and decorated with pearls or other semi-precious stones.
• Female silhouette with long, flowing hair.

Art Nouveau was the first movement to discover and bring elements of Asian cultures into Europeen fashion: the world had become more familiar with Asian design from the international exhibitions of the latter nineteenth century. Sinuous, free-flowing lines were integral design elements.

There is something about birthstones...

So, what is a birthstone?
Traditionally, it is a gift of precious or semi-precious stone that symbolizes the month of a Georgian Calendar.
As far as there is a huge variety of colored stones, in 1912 in an effort to standardize them, the American national association of jewelers, created a list of "Modern" birthstones, thus dividing all the birthstones in two groups: modern and traditional.
Traditional birthstones are the ones described in old Georgian Calendar poems based on the older society beliefs. By the way, Tiffany & Co. published these poems "of unknown author" for the first time in a pamphlet in 1870. Here are all the twelve verses - three of them are repeats - with vivid examples from our collection:

By her who in January was born
No gem saves garnets hall be worn
They will ensure her constancy
True friendship and fidelity.

The February born shall find
Sincerity and peace of mind,
Freedom from passion and from care,
If they, the amethyst will wear.

By her who in March was born
No gem save bloodstone shall be worn
They will ensure her constancy
True friendship and fidelity.

She who from April dates her years,
Diamonds shall wear,
lest bitter tears
For vain repentance flow.

Who first beholds the light of day
In spring's sweet, flower month of May
And wears an emerald all her life
Shall be a loved and a loving wife.

By her who in June was born
No gem save pearl shall be worn
They will ensure her constancy
True friendship and fidelity.

The gleaming ruby should adorn,
All those who in July are born,
For thus they'll be exempt and free,
From lover's doubts and anxiety.

Wear a peridot or for thee,
No conjugal fidelity,
The August born without this stone,
`Tis said, must live unloved; alone.

A maiden born when autumn leaves
Are rustling in September's breeze,
A sapphire on her brow should bind;
To bring her joy and peace of mind.

October's child is born for woe,
And life's vicissitudes must know,
But lay an opal on her breast,
And hope will lull those woes to rest.

Who first comes to this world below
In dreary November's fog and snow,
Should prize the topaz amber hue,
Emblem of friends and lovers true.

If cold December gave you birth
The month of snow and ice and mirth
Place on your hand a turquoise blue;
Success will bless whate'er you do.

Since many different cultures had their own list, jewelers' lists are often inconsistent over what constitutes a traditional birthstone.

The modern birthstone list is currently the most widely used list in the United States and many other locations, including Australia and Thailand. Jasper and Bloodstone for March were replaced with Aquamarine, Moonstone accompanied Pearl in June, due to increased popularity of Onyx in Victorian times, it was paired with Ruby as July birthstone. October's Aquamarine
was replaced with Tourmaline, and incredibly popular blue Topaz joined Turquoise as a December birthstone.

Since the list of modern birthstones made the choice of a gem even more complicated, some people still turn to astrology and buy jewelry depending on a zodiac sign. Although the list of zodiac birthstones is pretty much the same as traditional birthstones, it has some significant modifications: Bloodstone and Opal are replaced with Agate and Beryl, Ruby is assigned to December's Capricorn, Emerald joined summer stones to become one of Cancer's talismans.

Romantic Jewelry from Victorian Times

The Victorian Era of jewelry, times of romanticism, takes place during Queen Victoria reign from 1837 until her death in 1901.

Her marriage and wedding to Albert portrays many attributes of the time–Victoria was presented with an engagement ring that featured a snake with an emerald-set head (birthstones rather than diamonds were used in engagement rings, and snakes were a symbol of eternal love). Her wedding dress featured a large sapphire and diamond brooch - a present from the future husband. With the death of Albert some 20 years later, this tragic event also influenced the world of jewelry. Having Queen Victoria constantly wearing black, black enameling became very popular as well as jet beads and onyx gemstone.

Victorian Era Fashion and Jewelry Motifs:

• sentimental and nature inspired themes: hearts, bows, flowers and birds.
• semi-precious stones such as garnets, amethyst, coral, turquoise and pearls were especially popular due to their low price. Victoria herself highly appreciated opals.
• gold became less expensive to work with, jewelers experimented with granulation, chasing, filigree and engraving.

Antique jewelry from Victorian period often features antique Old Mine and Rose Cut diamonds as well as other colorful gemstones and made of yellow or rose gold. It was during this era that the Tiffany & Co. engagement ring setting was introduced.

Let's talk about GOLD.

Gold is the #1 material for fine jewelry crafting. Its Latin name - aurum - means "shining dawn" and perfectly describes the metal. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and the most ductile pure metal known. Pure(24k) gold has a bright yellow color and attractive luster.
Due to its softness pure 24k gold is not quite appropriate for stone settings, therefore, gold jewelry is made of a mixture of gold and other metals (such as sterling silver, copper, nickel and zinc; rarely iron and aluminium).
The "K" - karat number - tells us what fraction of 24 parts of the alloy are pure gold: for example, 14K is 14/24 or 58.33% of pure gold. Most typical alloys are 22k, 18k, 14k and 10k, hence 22k is the brightest one, 14k and 10k are somewhat lighter.
Copper is the most commonly used base metal, yielding a redder color. 18k gold contains 25% copper is a traditional alloy for Russian style antique jewelry, it has distinct copper cast, creating rose gold.

Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminium, although rarely done except in specialized jewelry. 14k and 18k gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold.
White gold alloys are made with palladium or nickel: white 18k gold usually contains 17.3% nickel, 5.5% zinc and 2.2% copper is silver in appearance.
In Europe, gold is marked with a number indicating the gold parts content per thousand: 18K gold, which is 75% pure gold is stamped 750.

Platinum is another rare metal perfect for filigree antique and modern ring styles. It is traditionally more expensive than gold, much stronger and requires highest temperatures to melt. It did not become a viable jewelry metal until advancements in jewelers' tools were made in the late 1800s and was also widely used and appreciated by watch-makers for not tarnishing neither wearing out.Jewelry platinum is usually an alloy of 90% platinum and 10% iridium. Platinum jewelry is stamped "Plat" or "Pt 900".

Vermeil is a combination of sterling silver and gold used in order to give silver jewelry "golden" look. A typical example is sterling silver base coated with 14k(58%) gold. To be considered vermeil, the gold must contain at least 42% of gold and be minimum 2.5 micrometers thick. The difference between 14k gold and 14k vermeil is slightly significant.