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- A Short History of Twentieth Century Jewellery
A Short History of Twentieth Century Jewellery
- By Whitehouse, Richard
- Published 24 April 2008
- Jewellery, Snuff Boxes and Miniatures , 20th-century Decorative Art
- Unrated
The Thirties
In the 1930s, the glamour and extravagance of the twenties gave way to increasing economic hardship and to the Depression. There was a swing back to more traditional jewellery. These designs represented reassurance in a financially insecure society, and could be regarded as a reasonably secure investment
A return to convention
The thirties was a period highlighted by a return to a more conservative attitude towards jewellery and the status associated with it. There was renewed interest in ‘good taste’ and morally acceptable styles. The thirties are characterised by a soft streamlined look. Curved feminine fashions superseded the hard-edged lines of Art Deco. In terms of jewellery fashion, clips were particularly popular and were considered an essential part of a woman’s dress. The fashion for diamonds was at its height, and flower sprays and bouquet jewellery with gilded finishes was a favourite design.
Dadaism and Surrealism
In sharp contrast to this return to safe forms of design were the avante garde contemporary art movements, known as Dadaism and Surrealism. These movements had a considerable effect on the world of jewellery. Designers like Schiaparelli Chanel’s fashion rival used these ideas. A number of the Dadaism and Surrealist artist themselves experimented with jewellery design including Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Jean Clement and Jean Arp.
Surrealism reached its peak in the Paris Exhibition of 1936 with a range of bizarre items on display, from lantern lit jewellery to glassless spectacles. They were admired by the social and fashionable elite of this period including Mea West and Mrs. Reginald Fellows.
The Second World War and after 1939 – 1949
Many European Jewellers found themselves involved in the war effort. Their workshops and tools were used for the production of bullets, surgical steel equipment and radio components. There was a shortage of gold and silver bullion and other materials, as well as labour shortages. Even costume jewellery was not widely available. Many of the centres were bombed including Birmingham and Pforzhiem. Manufacturers turned out large quantities of regimental badges; there was also a renewed interest in Victoriana, notably Whitby jet mourning jewellery and Berlin iron jewellery.
The postwar period
In Britain and the rest of Europe, the consequences of the war were to last many years, as shortages of manpower and materials continued and the painstaking work of reconstruction took place, much of it financed by America. Many of the technologies and scientific advances made during the war were adapted for peacetime use. Automated manufacturing techniques, the development of new plastics and the emergence of microchip technology were all to have profound effects.
The war brought with it a greater distribution of wealth and increased economic independence for women. Many women had worked during one or both wars and, there were those who wanted and needed to return to work. Fashions became more casual and a choice of ready to wear clothes increased greatly.
The influence of design
There was a new appreciation of the importance of design as a means of selling products in an increasingly commercial world. This message began to play an increasingly important part in new international markets that manufacturers had to compete in. Rapid industrial growth brought with it a wave of new design practices and debates. A major design influence was the Bauhaus. The discovery of new plastics was to have a major influence on designs of the post war period. The most important to emerge were PVC (vinyl), Melamine, Polythene, Polystyrene and Nylon. The development of metal alloys and numerous acrylic plastics and injection-moulded plastics increased the variety of plastics on the market.
The Jewellery trade
With the introduction of mass production techniques, the jewellery trade was able to respond quickly to changing fashions. Established houses such as Boucheron, Van Cleef and Arpels, Lacloche and Cartier continued to thrive in the immediate post war years. American jewellers and New York branches of Parisian houses such as Paul Flato, Vedura, Traebert and Hoeffer flourished too. This was a period when costume jewellers felt free to experiment with base metals, silver gilt and paste and when the artist jeweller came back into prominence.
Jewellery design
After the war jewellery design continued to develop despite the economic difficulties. Forties jewellery is characterised by its chunkiness and use of contrast. The interest in machinery is reflected in the designs. People still had limited financial resources so, small quantities of gold were wrought into designs to create an impression of things being bigger than the really were. Designs were much more fluid than Art Deco and often included pleats and drapes simulating fabric. Invisible settings were used in which small-cut rubies were placed. Unusual motifs such as clowns, ballerinas and cats were often used. Cartier built up a taste for exotic fauna, in particular the wild cats designed by Jeanne Tousaint. These animals became the ‘luxurious but poignant symbols of the Duchess of Windsor’ and were perfected by Cartier during the forties and fifties.
Fine Art Jewellery
Many fine artists continued to see jewellery making as an important part of their work. They continued to discover imaginative and creative forms. An important Italian artist who contributed to jewellery design was Bruno Martinazzi. He experimented with layered gold and texture. Other painters and sculptors who took an interest in jewellery were Braque, Tanguy, Man Ray, Dubuffet, Picasso, Fontana, Giacometti, and Alexander Calder.
Costume jewellery
The costume jewellery market was fostered after the war by the decreasing supplies of natural materials and the introduction of new plastics. Aspreys produced a highly successful brooch in ‘washable plastic’ but overall attitudes towards new materials was more conservative that in France and America. Parisians loved ‘faux gems’ and many French couturiers encouraged the use of bold essentially classic designs. Christian Dior, who created the ‘New look’ in 1947, developed the theatrical qualities of costume jewellery.
Contemporary jewellery: 1960 to today
In the last 30 years or so, the Western world has experienced unprecedented technological advances, with immense social change following in their wake. Although jewellery as a decorative art has never been in the vanguard of cultural change, many contemporary jewellers have reflected social change by using their ingenuity and expertise to explore the medium and even question its values.
Continuing tradition
The most famous names in the jewellery world such as Cartier, Bulgari, Boucheron, Asprey and Tiffany have remained faithful to their exclusive clientele and continued to produce jewellery in the ‘grand manner’. The established companies still devise sumptuous designs in precious metals and exquisite gemstones as status symbols and investments. Many of these customers have been from the Middle East where tradition still demands the formal display of wealth and rank.
In England, the 1960s brought a new generation of artists-jewellers, as well as a new self-made wealthy clientele. There was a great demand for a different kind of jeweller: less formal, more modern and an expression of the affluent decade.
In 1961, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths held an influential milestone exhibition that revealed the potential of modern jewellery as a medium for artistic self-expression. The 1960s jeweller was epitomised by Andrew Grima, his work was self consciously modern, aiming to break with the past. Many of his works were based on objets Trouves. He managed to capture the texture of leaves, trigs and bark in precious metals. As well as Grima, there were other jewellers like John Donald, Gillian Packard, and David Thomas developed contemporary designs using new images celebrating scientific achievement.
In New York, Jean Schlumberger reigned supreme over Tiffany in the 1960s, and he too was responsible for shifting the emphasis away from valuable stones and towards "artistic" content in design. Schlumberger’s subject matter was almost always organic, sometimes heraldic, always luscious and startling, reflecting the curiosities and marvels of nature. He loved colour and dared to mix sapphires and emeralds, amethysts and aquamarines, spinels, turquoises with generous lashings of yellow gold and brilliant enamels.
Theories of the Bauhaus continued to influence many art education establishments and designers throughout Europe. They encouraged the search for a universal, rational, simple beauty – a "democracy" of form. The rigours of the Bauhaus teaching with its desire to define forms in a minimal way are still held as fundamental by many designers.
In the 1930s, the glamour and extravagance of the twenties gave way to increasing economic hardship and to the Depression. There was a swing back to more traditional jewellery. These designs represented reassurance in a financially insecure society, and could be regarded as a reasonably secure investment
A return to convention
The thirties was a period highlighted by a return to a more conservative attitude towards jewellery and the status associated with it. There was renewed interest in ‘good taste’ and morally acceptable styles. The thirties are characterised by a soft streamlined look. Curved feminine fashions superseded the hard-edged lines of Art Deco. In terms of jewellery fashion, clips were particularly popular and were considered an essential part of a woman’s dress. The fashion for diamonds was at its height, and flower sprays and bouquet jewellery with gilded finishes was a favourite design.
Dadaism and Surrealism
In sharp contrast to this return to safe forms of design were the avante garde contemporary art movements, known as Dadaism and Surrealism. These movements had a considerable effect on the world of jewellery. Designers like Schiaparelli Chanel’s fashion rival used these ideas. A number of the Dadaism and Surrealist artist themselves experimented with jewellery design including Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Jean Clement and Jean Arp.
Surrealism reached its peak in the Paris Exhibition of 1936 with a range of bizarre items on display, from lantern lit jewellery to glassless spectacles. They were admired by the social and fashionable elite of this period including Mea West and Mrs. Reginald Fellows.
The Second World War and after 1939 – 1949
Many European Jewellers found themselves involved in the war effort. Their workshops and tools were used for the production of bullets, surgical steel equipment and radio components. There was a shortage of gold and silver bullion and other materials, as well as labour shortages. Even costume jewellery was not widely available. Many of the centres were bombed including Birmingham and Pforzhiem. Manufacturers turned out large quantities of regimental badges; there was also a renewed interest in Victoriana, notably Whitby jet mourning jewellery and Berlin iron jewellery.
The postwar period
In Britain and the rest of Europe, the consequences of the war were to last many years, as shortages of manpower and materials continued and the painstaking work of reconstruction took place, much of it financed by America. Many of the technologies and scientific advances made during the war were adapted for peacetime use. Automated manufacturing techniques, the development of new plastics and the emergence of microchip technology were all to have profound effects.
The war brought with it a greater distribution of wealth and increased economic independence for women. Many women had worked during one or both wars and, there were those who wanted and needed to return to work. Fashions became more casual and a choice of ready to wear clothes increased greatly.
The influence of design
There was a new appreciation of the importance of design as a means of selling products in an increasingly commercial world. This message began to play an increasingly important part in new international markets that manufacturers had to compete in. Rapid industrial growth brought with it a wave of new design practices and debates. A major design influence was the Bauhaus. The discovery of new plastics was to have a major influence on designs of the post war period. The most important to emerge were PVC (vinyl), Melamine, Polythene, Polystyrene and Nylon. The development of metal alloys and numerous acrylic plastics and injection-moulded plastics increased the variety of plastics on the market.
The Jewellery trade
With the introduction of mass production techniques, the jewellery trade was able to respond quickly to changing fashions. Established houses such as Boucheron, Van Cleef and Arpels, Lacloche and Cartier continued to thrive in the immediate post war years. American jewellers and New York branches of Parisian houses such as Paul Flato, Vedura, Traebert and Hoeffer flourished too. This was a period when costume jewellers felt free to experiment with base metals, silver gilt and paste and when the artist jeweller came back into prominence.
Jewellery design
After the war jewellery design continued to develop despite the economic difficulties. Forties jewellery is characterised by its chunkiness and use of contrast. The interest in machinery is reflected in the designs. People still had limited financial resources so, small quantities of gold were wrought into designs to create an impression of things being bigger than the really were. Designs were much more fluid than Art Deco and often included pleats and drapes simulating fabric. Invisible settings were used in which small-cut rubies were placed. Unusual motifs such as clowns, ballerinas and cats were often used. Cartier built up a taste for exotic fauna, in particular the wild cats designed by Jeanne Tousaint. These animals became the ‘luxurious but poignant symbols of the Duchess of Windsor’ and were perfected by Cartier during the forties and fifties.
Fine Art Jewellery
Many fine artists continued to see jewellery making as an important part of their work. They continued to discover imaginative and creative forms. An important Italian artist who contributed to jewellery design was Bruno Martinazzi. He experimented with layered gold and texture. Other painters and sculptors who took an interest in jewellery were Braque, Tanguy, Man Ray, Dubuffet, Picasso, Fontana, Giacometti, and Alexander Calder.
Costume jewellery
The costume jewellery market was fostered after the war by the decreasing supplies of natural materials and the introduction of new plastics. Aspreys produced a highly successful brooch in ‘washable plastic’ but overall attitudes towards new materials was more conservative that in France and America. Parisians loved ‘faux gems’ and many French couturiers encouraged the use of bold essentially classic designs. Christian Dior, who created the ‘New look’ in 1947, developed the theatrical qualities of costume jewellery.
Contemporary jewellery: 1960 to today
In the last 30 years or so, the Western world has experienced unprecedented technological advances, with immense social change following in their wake. Although jewellery as a decorative art has never been in the vanguard of cultural change, many contemporary jewellers have reflected social change by using their ingenuity and expertise to explore the medium and even question its values.
Continuing tradition
The most famous names in the jewellery world such as Cartier, Bulgari, Boucheron, Asprey and Tiffany have remained faithful to their exclusive clientele and continued to produce jewellery in the ‘grand manner’. The established companies still devise sumptuous designs in precious metals and exquisite gemstones as status symbols and investments. Many of these customers have been from the Middle East where tradition still demands the formal display of wealth and rank.
In England, the 1960s brought a new generation of artists-jewellers, as well as a new self-made wealthy clientele. There was a great demand for a different kind of jeweller: less formal, more modern and an expression of the affluent decade.
In 1961, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths held an influential milestone exhibition that revealed the potential of modern jewellery as a medium for artistic self-expression. The 1960s jeweller was epitomised by Andrew Grima, his work was self consciously modern, aiming to break with the past. Many of his works were based on objets Trouves. He managed to capture the texture of leaves, trigs and bark in precious metals. As well as Grima, there were other jewellers like John Donald, Gillian Packard, and David Thomas developed contemporary designs using new images celebrating scientific achievement.
In New York, Jean Schlumberger reigned supreme over Tiffany in the 1960s, and he too was responsible for shifting the emphasis away from valuable stones and towards "artistic" content in design. Schlumberger’s subject matter was almost always organic, sometimes heraldic, always luscious and startling, reflecting the curiosities and marvels of nature. He loved colour and dared to mix sapphires and emeralds, amethysts and aquamarines, spinels, turquoises with generous lashings of yellow gold and brilliant enamels.
Theories of the Bauhaus continued to influence many art education establishments and designers throughout Europe. They encouraged the search for a universal, rational, simple beauty – a "democracy" of form. The rigours of the Bauhaus teaching with its desire to define forms in a minimal way are still held as fundamental by many designers.