Design for a Gold Chatelaine with Turquoises and Diamonds

Drawing with a design for a gold chatelaine with turquoises and diamonds 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 chatelaine is made up of an incomplete roundel, where possibly a frame with a cameo would have been placed, from which hangs a triangular gold motif decorated with thin gold scrolls on the upper part, which hangs from gold rings that are attached to the upper roundel, and which contains an oval-shaped gold frame with an oval cabochon turquoise flanked by a silver bow motif with two wheat ears in the bottom, and a couple small leaves above. From this triangular motif hangs a rectangular gold frame, held to the triangular motif by short square chains, decorated with a small rosette with a round diamond in the center and five small round turquoises as petals, which holds an oval-shaped gold motif decorated with gold scrolls and granules, a quatrefoil motif made out of four diamonds in the center, and two small turquoise lozenges on its sides. It is possible that the turquoises were meant to be replaced by blue-colored glass stones or blue enamel in the creation of the jewel, both techniques widely used during the last decades of the nineteenth century. This drawing of a design for a chatelaine stands over a background of black gouache painted over a lithograph frame of cream color.