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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Jewellery in Renaissance shapes with rich enameling is a particularly precious field of collecting. Only a few of these precious pieces have come down to us through the ages without damage or missing pieces, so it is a special good fortune to find one of these period pieces.
Especially in the 19th century designs in this technique have been realized. First of all, in France, since the 1850s, there was an enthusiasm for the era of François I and Henri II, which was understood as an age of patriotic greatness. François-Désiré and Émile Froment-Meurice created jewelry around scenes such as the "Toilet of Venus", which at the same time referred eruditely to antiquity and yet in a cheerful way did not ignore the interests of this worldly life. Other goldsmiths like Boucheron, Falize and Wièse followed - and in 1871 Paris was already considered the capital of enamel by the Art Journal.
In Great Britain, the development took a similar course. Here, too, the Renaissance was regarded as the national style, as it referred to the glorious era of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. John Brogden and Carlo Giuliano produced designs in London in the 1860s that were based on the ornaments in Hans Holbein's paintings, which is why the style was also called "Holbeinesque." Queen Victoria was considered the new Queen Elizabeth, and jewellery that linked this past with the present was thus seen as a badge of patriotic pride.
Finally, in Germany, jewellery in Renaissance forms became fashionable under the term "Old German Style". Here, since the 1870s, the Dürer period was invoked. Jewelers such as Huga Schaper in Berlin and August Kleeberg in Vienna supplied high-quality jewellery in the Renaissance style, as did their colleagues in Paris and London, richly decorated with colored enamel.
The differences between the respective national styles, which were in any case more claimed than actual, became increasingly blurred by the end of the century. Jewellery with artistic enamel, however, remained in fashion for a long time - for the artists of Art Nouveau, such as René Lalique, also liked to use this technique, albeit now in a completely different 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 trader 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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