Georgian Jewelry of the 1700 and 1800's can be a challenge to find. Over the years, people often valued the "ingredients" of a piece more than the piece, itself. Gold and Silver would be melted down and reformed, stones would be removed, etc - all to create the latest style from pieces deemed "old-fashioned". This being the case, examples of Georgian jewelry are fairly rare and complete parures are almost impossible to find intact. If your search is diligent, however, you can still come across brooches, rings, (and with luck) earrings and necklaces for this time period.

The era is named after England's Kings, George I, II, & III. This was a time when the aristocratic and wealthy classes wore an abundance of jewels - men, as well as women. Jeweled buttons on coats and knee breeches, pocket watches, chains, fobs and jeweled shoe buckles were worn by both sexes. Women would often wear full parures (a set of matching necklace, ring, bracelets, earrings, and tiara, or aigrette,) or demi-parures (2-3 matching pieces.)

As in every era of history, fashion styles influence what and how jewelry is worn. Ancient Greece and it's motifs became fashionable in the late 1700's and early 1800's. Copying these styles, ladies wore jeweled bands in the hair, high on the arm, and even on calves, thighs, and toes. To duplicate ancient fashions, gowns were made in soft, draped fabrics, cut low at the bosom, sometimes with splits up the sides - to the knee or thigh. Sandals were worn with legs left bare or covered in flesh-colored tights. Some daring ladies went so far as to dampen their dresses making them cling to the body. (A habit that garnered lots of attention, and inspired many satirical cartoons of the era. Some women were said to have died from the chill they caught, victims to fashion).

Social changes are always reflected in fashion. The French Revolution brought some strange and morbid motifs into vogue. One was the wearing of a thin, red ribbon tight around the throat - to simulate a guillotine victim. Other jewelry of the revolution were items shaped like the freedom cap or made from pieces of stone from the Bastille prison.

Elements Common in Georgian Jewelry:

• Crowned Heart Design is usually found as rings and were intended as love tokens, symbolizing love's rule.
• Silver over Gold, particularly in jewelry pieces with Diamonds. The white color of the Silver was thought to highlight the whiteness of the diamonds. Silver can be the whole front of a piece or just have a small ring encircling the stones. The back is often left without silver covering the gold (to protect the wearer from tarnish.)
• Closed backs should be evident in stone-set pieces. (Open backed stones only started being made around 1800.) Foil would often be put behind the stones to help reflect light or even to change or enhance color. Many of the backs are highly decorated with etching.
• Cannetille designs are made up of tightly wound gold wirework. This motif could make up the whole piece or be a design element added on top of a metal base.
• Mourning Jewelry or "Memento Mori" is jewelry made to honor the dead. Popular designs show a skull or skeleton, black stones, or black enamel. Hair could form a design or be mixed in with paint to create a picture.
• Stomacher is a term for a large brooch that would cover a gown from the low cut neckline down to the waist or just above.
• Chatelaines are a type of jewelry worn at the waist with work implements suspended by chains. Some are made up of sewing implements: scissors, knives, as well as decorative fobs. These were worn up until the beginning of the 1920's.
• Floral Designs showing a single stem or bouquet of flowers were popular. Unlike later eras, the designs were not intended to duplicate nature or be a recognizable flower; they're stylized, sometimes rather flat-looking
• Mine Cut or Rose Cut diamonds were the norm. These show fewer facets, with more variations than modern stones. (Stone-cutting was difficult and used less sophisticated tools.) Mine cuts have a flat top; Rose cuts have a pointed top.
• Paste was often used in Georgian jewelry and was set in the same quality of setting as precious stones and were hand cut to fit it's settings. It wasn't considered "cheating" to wear paste and it wasn't necessarily intended to fool anyone. Aristocrats and royalty wore it without apology. You sometimes need a diamond tester to tell if a stone is paste or a diamond. (Rhinestones are from later eras; they're machine made and of uniform sizes.) Paste stones were individually cut to fit the jewelry piece. Colored paste of this era is quite rare to and more expensive than the white color.
• Girandole Earrings - have a stone at the ear lobe and 3 drops that hang from it.
• Sevigne Bow is a floppy-shaped bow, very natural looking. It's most often found as a brooch.
• Cameos became a craze after being popularized around 1800 by Josephine, wife of Napoleon. She wore a headdress of antique cameos to her coronation. Additional interest was sparked by discoveries of ancient carved cameos in archeological digs of the time. Reproductions of these ancient artworks have maintained their popularity as a jewelry motif throughout the various eras.
• Necklaces of the Georgian era, usually had rings on both end pieces where a ribbon was threaded through and tied in a bow at the neck. (it's rare to find these in their original state, most examples you find have had clasps added.) Brooches would be put on ribbons and worn as necklaces or bracelets.
• Ferronieres were head ornaments worn with a jewel that sat on the forehead. It was a fad of short duration during the Georgian and Victorian eras. Once the style was over many pieces were remade into necklaces or bracelets.
• Marcasite and Cut Steel were common materials used at the time. The earliest examples of cut steel will have inset pieces, individually riveted (later examples used larger plates).
• Pinchbeck (an alloy of copper and zinc used as a substitute for gold) was only made for a short while. The formula to create it died with its maker. It doesn't show wear like gold-fill pieces and maintains it's luster better than other materials that simulate real gold. Examples of this material are scarce and it's can be hard to find someone who can identify it.

All jewelry of the Georgian era was hand made. A piece should show some irregularity and shouldn't look too "perfect". Cuts of stones may look cruder than those of later eras.

Jewelry that comes apart to form different pieces is especially prized from this era. A piece that initially looks to be a necklace might be designed to come apart and form two bracelets - or a bracelet could become a brooch and earrings, for example.

It's a particularly lucky collector who finds a Georgian piece in its original case; this heightens its future value.

Life expectancy wasn't long in the Georgian era; medicine and sanitation were primitive and disease spread quickly. There were huge contrasts between the lives of the small number of rich and the rest of the population. Most people couldn't such luxuries as jewelry. But to those with a privileged life, it was an opulent and luxurious era with sumptuous fabrics, elegant jewelry, and beautiful houses.