Jewellery design draws from a wide range of inspirations. The Victorians, for instance, were interested in nature and created some beautiful pieces of floral jewellery in the form of sprays of flowers, acorn earrings and seed pearl and diamond wreaths. I think they also experimented a little bit far with their jewellery comprised of actual teeth and tusks, bird’s heads and beetles.
One inspiration that might be surprising was that of architecture but some jewellery does feature images of buildings and other structures. There are actually some good reasons for this and I thought it interesting to look at some examples. Probably the main reason for the inclusion of buildings in jewellery was for souvenirs of travels and, of course, the Grand Tours of the 18th and 19th centuries provide us with lots of examples. Tourists might visit Rome or Florence and then want to buy something to take home as a remembrance and to boast about with friends. The micro mosaic bracelet below features representations of the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Temple of Vesta and other landmark Roman buildings.
The next reason for including buildings and structures in jewellery was for another form of remembrance, that of mourning. One aspect that can be found in some mourning jewellery from the 1770s to the early Victorian period was the inclusion of little miniature scenes painted with sepia ink (partially dissolved human hair mixed with brown ink). These little miniature scenes often included a mourning figure standing next to an obelisk, tomb, column, bridge or gate or watching a ship sailing away. A few rare miniatures included buildings like a temple, a military barracks (memorialising a battle in which a French soldier died) and harbour buildings (also remembering a battle in which a loved one died). The Georgian ring below depicts a Church in sepia, possibly in remembrance of where a loved one is buried.
The final example of a building in jewellery is this tower and sword chain. The Royal Military Order of the Tower and Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit, is a Portuguese order of knighthood first established in 1459. The Order was revived in 1808 by the Prince Regent John, later John VI of Portugal to celebrate the arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family in Brazil after Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal. It was to be re-created a number of times, in 1832 and 1917, and still exists today. The collar worn by the Order can be either gold or silver, depending on the class and comprises a succession of towers and then swords resting on a wreath of oak leaves.
navette jewellery 