Design for a Gold Earring with Black Stones and Cannetille Scrolling Motifs

Drawing with a design for a gold earring with black stones and cannetille scrolling motifs that is part of a collection of 85 drawings with figurative designs for earrings, brooches, pendants and other jewels, possibly real-sized, created with graphite and gouache and heightened with gold inside lithograph frames. These designs are all characteristic of the period between 1870 and 1900, when jewelry design saw a great degree of innovation and creativity in both style and technique. Some of the most important innovations that took place at this time included the setting of diamonds without metal on the back to reinforce the refraction of light on the cut surfaces of the stones, and the use of gold granules and cannetille (scrolls of metal strips) in the creation of fine metal surfaces. (Semi-)precious stones continued to be used in jewelry design at this time, especially with the discovery of diamond mines in South Africa, although alternative techniques, many of them inspired on ancient jewelry, were also common: Enamel in its different application techniques (including champlevé, cloisonné, and low-relief) was particularly popular. In addition to enamel, colored glass was used to add touches of color to the metallic structures that formed the base of the jewels. In general, jewelry design during this period became more complex, and the colors in nature were mimicked by the color of gemstones used for jewelry design: the designs were elaborate and relied in the natural beauty of cabochon gems, curving, and figurative designs with symbolic meaning, typical of the Arts and Crafts movement. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Art Nouveau movement created sinuous and organic pieces that moved away from conventional stones and put emphasis on the subtle effects of materials such as glass, horn and enamel. The European Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as well as civilizations of the Mediterranean, and even Japan, became important sources of inspiration for jewelry design at this time.

This design for a gold earring is made up of a gold roundel with a black cabochon stone from which hangs an elongated oval-shaped gold motif with a strip of five square-cut black pearls, whose bottom half is surrounded by a half-moon gold motif with tiny naturalistic scrolling motifs, which would have been achieved on the manufactured jewel through the use of cannetille technique, and decorated with small gold granules on its outer edge. The black stones could have been precious or semi-precious stones, although it is also very likely that they were black-colored glass stones, a technique that was widely used in the creation of jewels during the period in which this design for an earring was created. The scrolling motifs and the half-moon at the bottom of the design, as well as the use of tiny gold granules, reveal inspiration on Ancient Islamic jewelry, also common in this period of jewelry design. The design lies over a black background inside a red ink lithograph frame. A red ink lithograph monogram with the initials "J. B" is placed on the upper right corner of the sheet.