Beautiful Antique Paste Jewellery: Part II

The eighteenth century was probably the height of quality for paste jewellery. While diamonds were cut in conventional shapes – rounds, ovals, oblongs, – and so were not set closely together. Paste, on the other hand, could be cut into any shapes which enabled them to be set closely together, resulting in a blaze of fire. Many 18th century paste stones had a tiny spot of black paint on the culet. It was said to be used to simulate the dark spot seen on the culet on a brilliant cut diamond. The paste earrings at the top of the post have a black spot.

As well as colourless pastes, some realistic coloured pastes were made. Red and green pastes were not good imitants of rubies, garnets or emeralds, but aquamarines and topaz were very convincing.

As mentioned in Part I, it was improvements in diamond faceting that led to a need for a clear glass equivalent. The introduction of the brilliant cut for diamonds occurred around 1660 to 70, according to Jack Ogden in his book, ‘Diamonds’ but it took quite a few decades for  enough lapidaries to learn the appropriate techniques. For the first time, jewellers were dealing with a highly reflective gemstone which would sparkle and show a lovely fire. Diamonds were being cut so that light entered a stone and was reflected back from the internal facets.

MDS Lewis in ‘Antique Paste Jewellery’ stated that after 1830, ‘the history of paste jewellery becomes identical to that of diamonds’ (p54). Before that time, paste jewellery had been viewed as a distinctive piece of jewellery that could stand alone in terms of technique and effort. But the 19^th century saw it become just an imitation of diamond and other precious set jewellery.

Diamond jewellery was more and more being open-set to make the most of the high refractive and dispersive qualities of the brilliant cut. Paste needed more help to sparkle. In about 1840, a practice of ‘silvering’ by immersion was invented and clear pastes began to be permanently foiled with a backing of silver foil (Lewis, 64) which helped with brilliance.

Diamond jewellery was more and more being open-set to make the most of the high refractive and dispersive qualities of the brilliant cut. Paste needed more help to sparkle. In about 1840, a practice of ‘silvering’ by immersion was invented and clear pastes began to be permanently foiled with a backing of silver foil (Lewis, 64) which helped with brilliance.

Toward the end of the 19^th century, Daniel Swarovski introduced cut-glass crystals as diamond imitations. The Swarovski crystals were made of high-lead-content glass and had a permanent foil backing. Eventually they were used to imitate coloured gems as well, including rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. In 1892, Swarovski patented a mechanical glass cutter so his crystals could be mass-produced to meet the high demand. In 1895, Swarovski moved his family business, originally located in Bohemia, to Austria near the Rhine River. Swarovski still dominates the paste jewellery industry today.