Preview of Masterpiece London 2014

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Masterpiece-London-Banner-2014

Every summer at this time London becomes the focus of the art world, with the distinguished art and antiques fair Masterpiece, at the center. Held on the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, fine and decorative art, ancient and modern, luxury of today and yesterday, all intersect at this grand event. The show premiered Wednesday, june 25th, and runs through July 2nd.

“The crowds are amazing today,” reported co-owner Mr. Peter Schaffer, from Wednesday’s premier.

This year’s fair features a range of themes, including the centennial of World War I and the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare. In honor of these events, exhibitors were asked to select pieces representing these themes. For the WWI centennial, ALVR selected a Fabergé copper coup kettle used at the front, and other similar WWI-era Fabergé  pieces. In honor of Shakespeare, we are featuring a Midsummer Night’s Dream-themed brooch by Tiffany & Co. Blog posts on these pieces can be found here and here.

We are also exhibiting a selection of antique jeweled sautoirs, an Edwardian era Chaumet diamond and emeral diadem, and an ornate set of silver-gilt fruit and cheese knives and forks by Fabergé featuring shibuichi-ornamented handles.

Come see all this and more at booth C8!

For all our ALVR Blog posts, please click here.

A Pebble in the Rough – Scottish Jewelry in the Victorian Age

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Antique Scottish Stickpin

Queen Victoria was so enamored of the Scottish landscape that she and Prince Albert purchased a Scottish residence, Balmoral Castle, in 1852. The royal family soon adopted Highland dress in the form of tartans and jewelry. Such jewelry came from the land itself, often called “Scotch pebbles”, from the use of native hardstones.

Commonly used stones, often mounted in silver, included bloodstone, carnelian, polished agate and granite, citrine, garnet, pale amethyst, and jasper. Cairngorm, a smoky yellow quartz, from the Cairngorm Mountains, was the most favored stone. Victorian Scottish Sgian Dubh Brooch

Brooches were among the most popular forms of Scottish jewelry. The Scottish dirk, or dagger, was a recurring design motif, evidenced by our sgian dubh brooch, covered in a previous blog post. Other common designs included the Saint Andrew’s cross, butterflies, anchors, and love knots.

Circles were also common, like our agate, bloodstone, and citrine open ring, or penannular, stick pin (pictured above).  Our stickpin is an abstraction of the generic Scottish-ring brooch, which usually featured a pinhead in the form of a thistle. Such brooches are inspired from the penannular brooches with thistle-headed pins of the Viking period (793-1066) found in Ireland and Scotland, and were used to fasten garments.

In the Victorian age, Scottish jewelry was often worn with tartan costumes for ice skating. In our own age, they are suited for everyday wear, no matter your intended activity (or lack of plaid).

For all our ALVR Blog posts, please click here.

The Irony of Jewelry

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Berlin Iron Necklace

Sometimes a piece of jewelry does not need precious gems or metals to render it meaningful and special. In the early nineteenth-century, Prussians wore jewelry made of cast- iron, ironically, with great pride.

At the time of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), Prussian citizens showed their support for the war effort by exchanging their gold and silver jewelry for pieces of iron adornment; hence this type of jewelry came to be called Berlin iron. The jewelry’s intrinsic value was inconsequential.  Iron, a strong and native material coming from the Prussian Royal Foundries, imbued the pieces with patriotic fervor.

Berlin iron jewelry usually featured inscriptions touting support for the war effort, most commonly ‘Gold gab ich für Eisen’ (I gave gold for iron) or ‘Für das Wohl des Vaterlands’ (for the welfare of our homeland).Berlin Iron necklace - medallion

Neo-classical motifs, such as cameos and acanthus leaves, dominated early Berlin iron pieces. The necklace in our collection features medallions with neo-classical scenes and dates to around 1806.

Portraits and mythological scenes used in Josiah Wedgewood’s jasperware and James Tassie’s glass pastes were incorporated into designs. By 1815, Gothic and nature-inspired motifs replaced or embellished neo-classical designs. Susceptible to rusting, they were sealed with a lacquer made of flaxseed, causing a black coating, another distinctive feature.

Berlin iron jewelry remained fashionable up to the middle of the nineteenth-century. Though initially a style wrought by nationalism, it eventually cast wider appeal, reaching consumers across Europe and in America.

For all our ALVR Blog posts, please click here.