Semi-precious stones were also beautiful:
For example, Prince Albert’s favorite, the Opal, was used to design a whole series of jewels for the Queen. This was done using this mysterious gemstone with its changing colors..
The most famous of these was the magnificent Oriental crown designed in 1853.
Taking inspiration from the Mughal Empire of India, it was designed with 17 arches inlaid with lotus flowers. The main stone was Opal, set with 2,600 diamonds, with Garrard’s production.
Victoria liked the crown so much that she added it to the royal collection. She stipulated that it could only be worn by the Queen or the Queen Mother.
Prince Albert then designed matching opal necklaces and earrings for the Queen.
Unfortunately, his successor decided that the Opal was not auspicious enough and replaced it with rubies. The “Oriental Crown” we see today is a re-decorated version.
Cameo jewelry:
French jewelry designers were the first to incorporate cameos into their designs. Because during the “imperial period” Napoleon and Empress Josephine were ancient Rome, ancient Greece fans, so this style began to spread throughout Europe.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, as the most passionate art collectors, how could they miss this trend?
This period of the royal family became the “love” of many people, providing inspiration for cameo jewelry.
in particular, Queen Victoria’s portrait often appeared in jewelry of this period.
Perhaps this is the British vintage style, not looking for the glory of the Roman Empire, but drawing on the craftsmanship of the time to create creative creations for the “present”.
A loving family made “sentimental jewelry” popular:
Prince Albert, the royal couple with nine children, leads sentimental jewelry popularity.
Albert often uses sentimental jewelry to express his love for his wife and children, and all kinds of memorabilia about children become his inspiration.
For example, Victoria’s first child, Princess Victoria, delighted the couple.
Inspired by Raphael’s angels, Albert designed an openwork enamel brooch with wings set with colorful stones on the back. He gave the Queen as a Christmas gift.
In 1847 when Princess Victoria changed her teeth, Albert designed another Thistle brooch using her deciduous milk teeth.
And Queen Victoria was no slouch either, making an elegant pendant to hide Prince Albert’s hair when she was newly married.
The most iconic is the heart-shaped charm bracelet Prince Albert gave to Victoria. The gold bracelet comes with nine enameled heart-shaped charm boxes in different colors, each containing the hair of each of their nine children.
The Queen received the gift on the third day after the birth of their eldest daughter, Victoria. It had only a star charm inscribed with the child’s name and birthday.
After the Queen’s death, she asked that the bracelet be kept permanently in Albert’s room where he died in 1861. This was in the hope that the children could keep their father company.
The popularity of mourning jewelry:
The love between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was celebrated throughout the world, in large part because of Prince Albert’s untimely death. This left Queen Victoria devastated.
She ordered the British court to mourn for three months, but she spent the rest of her life in memory of her beloved. This resulted in an increase in the popularity of mourning jewelry that inherited grief.
The Queen had been mourning for the Prince since his death. However, some necessary public work still required jewelry, so he ordered the design of many mourning jewelry.
For example, six months after Prince Albert’s death, Princess Alice needed to follow the pre-arranged wedding. This wedding was extremely untimely. But Queen Victoria still created a wedding gift for her daughter, a memorable mourning bracelet. The inside is engraved with the words “To dear Alice, from his loving parents Albert and Victoria, despite the separation, they will always be united. April 25, 1862”.
Coal, dark garnets, pick-axe onyx, and black enamel all became popular jewelry materials during this period.
Black jewelry became one of the distinctive features of the Victorian period, and I’m afraid it’s the best distinguishable jewelry style.
The entire Victorian era was a period of rapid development in England and Europe, and the industrial revolution had an impact on jewelry not only in terms of technology and materials.
