Portrait of Maria Serra Pallavicino in gold dress. 1606. Artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Gold Dresses Kaleidoscope. Dresses with threads of precious metals are very heavy, taking into account the mantle plume of any coronation dress. It’s hard even to imagine how difficult it was to wear them. Nevertheless, almost all the coronation gowns include fabric with metallic threads and were decorated with real gold and silver embroidery. In the XX century, there were two periods when the metallic threads and Lurex were very much in fashion. First – in the late 60’s and early 70’s, second – in the late 80-early 90’s. Silver and gold, glitter and lurex were periodically in and out of fashion, and now there is a return of interest in metallic texture in a suit, shoes and accessories.
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Beautiful set of brooch and earrings. Crystals sparkle beautifully in the light. Juliana Vintage jewellery

Juliana Vintage jewellery
Presented by the company “Delizza & Elster” (abbreviated in catalogs D & E), Juliana appeared in about 1940s and lasted until 1990. Very quickly, the company has become a major manufacturer of costume jewelry in America, and signed contracts with 800 customers in the US and abroad.
Noteworthy, their customers were such famous brands as: Weiss, Alice Caviness, Ballet, Celebrity, Hobe, Hattie Carnegie, Kenneth J. Lane, Kramer, and Karu. In addition to the decorations, produced for wholesale customers, in 1953 the company released a line of jewelry that has become very popular to this day.
However, the masters didn’t mark this line despite the huge demand. And the explanation is simple – jewelry sold through major central stores of America, who wanted to see on the tags and labels only their names.
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Belle Epoque handcrafted Diamond Brooch Pin. Moscow, 1908 – 1917. The brooch is marked on pin and on pin guard with maker’s initials ‘AM’ for Moscow jeweler Alexander Moskvin

Art Nouveau Jewellery has “geographical” features. French Art Nouveau jewellery, for example, by Lucien Gaillard, Georges Fouquet, is masterly asymmetrical, while “the German mind” (Wilhelm von Cranach Lucas) tends to symmetry. Palette also varies, and in Russia it is different than in Europe. Russian Revival Style of the 1910s, called Neo-Russian Modern was influenced by medieval Russo-Byzantine tradition. Russian Art Nouveau jewellery was produced in Moscow in 1908-1917, the period before and during the World War I. Russian medieval designs and shapes were mixed with typical Belle Epoque forms and elements, resulting in a unique Russian jewelry style not seen anywhere else.
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The brooch ‘Bird on a Rock’. Tiffany Diamond. image – Wikipedia. French jewelry designer Jean Schlumberger

French jewelry designer Jean Schlumberger
Bird on a Rock has been one of Jean Schlumberger’s most iconic pieces since its introduction in 1965. Born in Mulhouse, France, Jean Schlumberger was the son of Paul Albert Edward Schlumberger (1877 – 1952) and Elizabeth Schoen (1884 – 1942), both worked in the textile industry. Already in his youth, Jean showed talent for drawing, but his parents tried to discourage him from the artistic activity, forbidding him to undertake formal training. In 1930, his father sent his son to Berlin to be engaged in banking activities. However, Jean finds a complete lack of interest and talent for numbers, and soon moved to Paris, where he indulges his love of art.
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Insect Jewellery Kaleidoscope. Brooch. Gold, diamonds, pearls, opal. 1879

Insects in jewelry existed at all times, but the real fashion for them began in the early XIX century with the development of the natural sciences. Since then, bugs, butterflies, ants, ladybirds, dragonflies and spiders forever became one of the most popular images in jewelry, and still virtually all known fashion houses have their precious insectarium, replenished from time to time with new swatches. Jewelers of XIX century not just used images of insects, but almost copied the mother nature and always had a naturalistic albums with sketches of insects and ordered sketches from entomologists. Actually brooches and necklaces of XIX century would be correct to call the “entomological”.
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Antique jewellery buttons

History of the appearance of buttons is interesting and diverse. The first of their counterparts include fasteners, which appeared in the 3rd millennium BC. The excavations in the Indus Valley discovered a button with two holes for sewing. In Europe, the first find is dated 4th century BC. These were the items for bonding pieces of clothing from the ancient Greeks, who fastened with buttons their leather belts. From that time until the 1st century AD were found the samples made of gold. A medieval knight brought them to Europe from the Middle East.
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Fragment of work by Alonso Sanchez Coello (1531-1588) ‘Portrait of the Infanta of Spain and Queen Isabella Clara Eugenia of Austria’

Ring on the thumb – a symbol of wealth, on the index – belonging to a powerful family or any fraternity, and a ring on the little finger may indicate professional status. Does it matter on which finger to wear a ring? There are many traditions in wearing jewelry. Knowing the symbolism of wearing rings, you can “make a statement” or learn something about its owner. Rigid set of rules on which finger and which hand to wear the ring does not exist and anyone can wear the ring as he pleases, except wedding. But there are nuances. For example, in the majority of South and North America, including, most European countries wedding ring is worn on the ring finger of the left hand, and in accordance with Orthodox tradition they are worn on the ring finger of the right hand.
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