Fashion repeats itself: Victorian jewelry

Victorian jewelry is very popular in our shop. Of course there are different styles within the Victorian period, as it was a long one, ranging from 1837 until 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of France and continental Europe.

The Victorian period awakened romanticism and even mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. It was the time of the first photograph taken, the industrial revolution, the invention of the telephone, the sewing machine and icecream. Of Charles Dickens, Lewis Caroll and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (Englands first female doctor), George Eliot and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

During the Victorian period, Queen Victoria was the idol for women in terms of fashion. Women looked up to her for dressing style and fashion. Queen Victoria was an undeniable romantic and it shows in the jewerly of the period. Up to this point essentially all jewelry was being completely handmade with expensive 22k gold, 18k gold and silver. With rapid advances in technology, machines could now cut and stamp metal. The proliferation of factories meant metalworking in 14 karat, 10 karat, and even 9 karat gold could now be performed on a mass scale with affordable materials. Suddenly jewelry was accessible to almost everyone. Victorian jewelry mimicked the Queen’s style and collection: from snake rings and orange blossom motifs to mourning jewelry. When her husband Prince Albert died in 1861, the Mourning period arrived. Victoria was devastated by the loss. The period of Victoria's mourning included large, dark, somber, yet dramatic jewelry, with a lot of black onyx, jet, amethyst, garnet and golds. This lasted until 1880's, when the aesthetic period of jewelry began. The Late Victorians utilized more complex and feminine motifs, returning to the natural, including many floral and celestial designs, with more decadent stones, such as sapphire, ruby, zircon, and of course diamonds, lasting until the turn of the century.