Description
This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!
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Renaissance-style jewellery with rich enamel work is a particularly valuable area of collecting. Only a few of these high-quality pieces have survived the passage of time without damage or missing parts, so it is a special stroke of luck to find one of these examples of historicism.
Numerous designs using this technique were created, particularly in the 19th century. Initially, starting in the 1850s, an enthusiasm for the era of François I and Henry II—which was viewed as an age of national greatness—emerged in France. François-Désiré and Émile Froment-Meurice created pieces of jewellery featuring scenes such as “Venus at Her Toilet,” which at once made erudite references to antiquity while also cheerfully celebrating the joys of earthly life. Other goldsmiths such as Boucheron, Falize, and Wièse followed suit—and as early as 1871, the *Art Journal* referred to Paris as the capital of enamel.
In Great Britain, the development followed a similar course. There, too, the Renaissance was regarded as the national style, as it evoked the glorious era of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. In London, John Brogden and Carlo Giuliano had been creating designs since the 1860s that were inspired by the pieces of jewellery depicted in Hans Holbein’s paintings, which is why this style was also referred to as “Holbeinesque.” Queen Victoria was seen as a new Queen Elizabeth, and jewellery that linked this past with the present was regarded as an expression of patriotic identity.
In Germany, finally, jewellery in Renaissance forms became fashionable under the term “Old German style.” Here, since the 1870s, designers had drawn inspiration from the era of Albrecht Dürer. Jewelers such as Hugo Schaper in Berlin and August Kleeberg in Vienna crafted high-quality jewellery in the Renaissance style, adorned with colored enamel just as lavishly as the works of their colleagues in Paris and London.
The differences between the respective national styles—which were more a matter of perception than reality—became increasingly blurred toward the end of the century. However, jewellery featuring artful enamel remained in fashion for a long time to come. Art Nouveau artists such as René Lalique also embraced this technique with great passion, albeit now within a completely new formal language.
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Size & Details
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You can rely on our years of experience in the trade and our expertise as a professional art historians for reviews of the antique jewellery. As a member of various trade organisations and the British Society of Jewellery Historians, we remain committed to the highest possible degree of accuracy. In our descriptions, we always also indicate any signs of age and defects and never hide them in our photos – this saves you from any unpleasant surprises when your package arrives.
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