Antique jewelry glossary

Welcome to our extensive antique jewelry glossary with around 1,500 jewelry related entries.If you feel you are missing an explanation, feel free to let us know and we will add it.

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Edwardian jewelry

See our: edwardian jewelry.

Articles of jewelry popularly worn in England during the reign of Edward VII, 1901-10. They included articles lavishly decorated with gemstones, especially diamonds in very fine spindly settings, such as necklaces, collars, tiaras, and pendent earrings.

Elegant designs with the fineness of line and lacey aspects are distinctive in Edwardian pieces reacting gracefully against the very geometrical forms of Art Deco that was strongly influenced by Cubism. However, because both Edwardian and Art Deco styles were contemporaries of each other, we sometimes notice pieces that carry both influences.

Edwardian period

The following is from: Wikipedia

The Edwardian period or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.

The death of Queen Victoria, Empress of India in January 1901 and the succession of her son, Edward, marked the start of a new century and the end of the Victorian period. While Victoria had shunned society, Edward was the leader of a fashionable elite which set a style influenced by the art and fashions of continental Europe-perhaps because of the King's fondness for travel. The era was marked by significant shifts in politics as sections of society which had been largely excluded from wielding power in the past, such as common labourers and women, became increasingly politicised.

The period is often extended beyond Edward's death in 1910 to include the years up to the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, the start of World War I in 1914, or even the end of the war in 1918. The war sealed the end of the period as the Edwardian way of life, with its inherent imbalance of wealth and power, became increasingly anachronistic in the eyes of a population suffering in the face of war, and exposed to mass propaganda decrying the injustice of class division.