Harlequin jewellery

Harlequin jewellery is defined as being a piece of jewellery set with ‘dissimilar gemstones of different colours … popular in England during the Victorian period’ (An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry).  Such jewellery can be described as multi-gem jewellery as well. The descripter ‘harlequin’ comes from a character in the late 16^th century Italian Commedia dell’Arte. This was a form of comedy theatre which had a number of stock characters with identifiable costumes. It later became imbedded into English pantomines. The character ‘Harlequin’ originally wore a peasant’s shirt and trousers covered with different coloured patches. This outfit later became a tight-fitting top and leggings covered with triangles and diamond shapes (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Harlequin-theatrical-character) in colours including red, blue, green, and yellow.

Some of the jewellery classed as harlequin jewellery is acrostic jewellery, that is, jewellery set with different coloured gemstones which spell out a word or a name. The Georgian locket above spells out ‘Adore’ (amethyst, diamond, opal, ruby and emerald), while others spell out ‘dearest’ or ‘regard’. Other pieces might spell out someone’s name, like Kate, for instance, using kunzite (pink), aventurine (green), topaz (pink) and emerald (green).

These pretty bracelets were made around the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century. The gems are graduated in size. Two are set in gold, two in silver. As far as I can tell, the gemstones in these bracelets above do not spell out words or names but have probably been chosen just for their colour. Less expensive gemstones have been used, like garnets, citrines, amethysts, zircons, and tourmalines. Fringe necklaces set with mixed gemstones were also popular in the Victorian era.

Harlequin jewellery continues to be made today, usually seen as long chains with gems distributed along their length. The necklace below is a more striking version, with gems attached to twig-like gold pieces.