Art Jewelry

Collector Cafe writes:

Term for jewelry developed from the 1890s onwards which differed from traditional jewellery in that it was wholly or partly composed of base metals and non-precious stones as well as other materials which had not hitherto been regarded as suitable for personal adornment. Originally it was known as art jewelry (on the same analogy as art glass, art pottery and art silks), alluding to the fact that it was initiated and developed by artist-craftsmen working within the Arts and Crafts Movement in the style of Art Nouveau. Because they worked in much less valuable materials than the traditional jewelers, their products have tended to survive intact in larger quantities, since platinum, gold and diamond tiaras, corsages, bows, pendants and other larger pieces were often broken up when they ceased to be fashionable.

At first, the Arts and Crafts jewelers used semi-precious stones, often uncut, in settings of silver or even copper. Whereas the work of the commercial jewelers was becoming lighter and more delicate, that of the 'artistic' jewelers gradually became more and more massive and chunky. In the former, the setting was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible; in the latter the setting was just as important as the stones, if not more so, and great care was taken in the elaborate ornamentation of the settings.

Silver was cast, wrought, carved, engraved, chased, inlaid or beaten in repousse or martele techniques. In the repousse technique the metal was hammered out from behind to produce raised relief, whereas in the martele technique hollow ware was hammered by hand to produce a soft, fluid look which lent itself admirably to Art Nouveau motifs. The jewelry of such artist-craftsmen as Omar Ramsden, Henry Wilson, Phoebe Traquair and Harold Stabler is self-conscious, often technically poor though highly imaginative. Unfortunately this type of jewelry fell between two stools. It was not glamorous enough for the wealthy, who preferred impeccably cut diamonds in invisible settings, and too expensive for the mass market. As a result, very little of this up-market art jewelry has survived in any appreciable quantity and those pieces which pass through the saleroom tend to fetch correspondingly high prices.

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