European Jewelry: Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

2. Pinchbeck Settings

As the century advanced, England prospered and the general standard of living rose. Those who could not afford the luxury of fine gems could at least ape the fashions of the upper classes by wearing cheap jewelry. There were good imitation pearls; and in place of diamonds there was rock crystal, rose-cut or brilliant. ‘Bristol diamonds’ and ‘Cornish diamonds’ were rock crystal named respectively for the places where they were found. If you did not possess the desired number of jewels (genuine or counterfeit) to wear on some festive occasion, you hired them.

Inexpensive stones needed inexpensive settings, and this demand was met by a number of substitutes for gold. The most popular was an alloy of copper and zinc called ‘pinchbeck,’ after its inventor, Christopher Pinchbeck, a clock and watch maker of London.

Neither he nor his son Edward, who continued the business after his father’s death in 1732, appear to have offered their metal alloy as real gold; yet in the course of time the word ‘pinchbeck’ has come to be used in a derogatory sense to denote any cheap and fraudulent sham.

Pinchbeck gold was used for all sorts of jewelry, and for a time it would retain its yellow color without tarnishing. Frequently, however, it was given a wash of gold to prolong its brightness.

European Jewelry: Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries (continued)