I have an earlier post on stars and moons in antique jewellery but this time I just wanted to focus on particular version of the star. The star is the North Star, also known as Polaris, which can only be seen in the Northern Hemisphere. It is located in the direction of true north as opposed to magnetic north and can be used as a reliable guide as it stays in the same place in the sky with little movement. The North Star is depicted with eight points and with the north and south points being the longest, and the east west points generally but not always the second longest.
Stars have been a common motif in jewellery for centuries but they were particularly popular in the 1860s to 1880s. The North Star was used to decorate gold lockets (see photo at top of the post), bracelets and earrings (see photo above). A recurring style was for the North Star to be outlined with blue enamel and set with set pearls. Sometimes a diamond might be placed at the centre.
The North Star was used in other ways. It is a stunning decoration for the oval Victorian onyx brooch above.
It was still being used in jewellery in the early 20th century as you can see with the lovely 9ct ring above. For a change, the centre of the star is a turquoise stone while quite large seed pearls surround the turquoise.
navette jewellery 