Monthly Archives: March 2012

Gold. Textures and Colour

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Pure gold is not much harder than talc. (Talc is 1 on the Moh’s scale of hardness, diamond is 10), pure gold is between 2 to 3 which makes gold incredibly flexible to work with. One Troy ounce (31.1 ounces) can be beaten very thinly to cover 4 square metres. These sheets or gold leaf were used to gild artefacts, frescos, the halos of saints, and even to decorate cakes. The ounce of gold could also be pulled into a wire 100km long. As well as the beautiful wire work  in jewellery, the  gold wire provided the earliest use of gold in dentistry when the Etruscans started securing their false teeth with gold wire in 600BC

Gold has been found all over the world and nearly all civilisations have been enthralled by it and gone to great lengths to obtain it. Only a few cultures, such as the Aborigines, the Maoris and the indigenous peoples of North America haven’t succumbed to its magic, valuing more, harder materials such as flint or obsidian (volcanic glass). However, one of the great qualities of gold is that it can be mixed easily with other metals such as copper, silver, zinc and palladium to make it harder –  a by product to this process is that wonderful varieties of colours can be created which have been used so effectively by jewellers. 24 carat (ct.) gold is 99.9% gold, and is very yellow.18ct gold is 75% yellow gold and 25% other metals. 18ct green gold has the 75% gold with 25% silver. To get 18ct red gold the 25% addition is copper. 18ct white gold has the 25% addition of silver, zinc and palladium to give a white hue. In the past

nickel was in the 25% mix but nickel can cause an allergic reaction so is rarely used now.  In 1854 lower carat gold was permitted so that gold could be made available to more people. These other carats were 12ct gold, 50% gold and 50% other metals, 15ct gold, which was 62.5% gold and 37.5% other metals  and 9ct gold which at only 37.5% gold and 62.5% other metals could hardly be called gold. However, in 1931,12 and 15 carat gold  were replaced by 14ct gold, 58.3% gold 41.7% other metals. We have kept the 9ct gold.The colour of the gold mixes will
also be different depending on the carat of gold and the percentage of other metals. So for example, 18ct red gold will be a softer
rose colour than 9ct red gold which will obviously have a much greater proportion of copper so will be a richer darker red.

Gold is liked so much for its value and the status it can give to the wearer. But there is much more to gold.

The dog blog – a jewellery homage to Crufts

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Let me nail my colours to the mast – I am a cat person. I like my dogs to be in art – preferably in jewellery.  However, as it is Crufts soon, this is my homage to dogs.

Dogs have been domesticated for more than 15,000 years. With this has come a broad symbolism. For the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks, dogs had links to the underworld. One of the most iconic images of early dog art must surely be the jackal head of the god Anubis in ancient Egyptian funeral scenes. Anubis, the god of mummification, assisted in the rites by which a dead man was admitted to the underworld.

 

 

 

 

 

The Greeks had a three headed dog – Cerebus,  who guarded the entrance to the underworld, allowing souls in, but not back.  Neither images were seen much in jewellery.  The main images that have been portrayed in Western art, highlight symbols that are recognisable today such as dogs’ faithfulness, companionship and of course, their hunting skills. Many of these images were translated into what could be called ‘male’ jewellery and accoutrements such as seals, tie/stick pins or snuff boxes. The jewellery depicting dogs which was made for women tended to be much more frivolous.

This beautiful greyhound family made in 1800 looks as if it had been painted – in fact

 

 

 

 

 

it is made of of tiny mosaic pieces so small that they are called micromosaic.  This became particularly popular in Italy between 17th and 19th centuries when many of these mosaics were favourite mementos with those on the Grand Tour.  It might well have been bought already made up into a brooch, as here or bought as a small tablet as with the poodle, ready to be slotted into a box top or framed, back in England.

This delightful micromosaic poodle was made around 1840 in Italy.  The poodle is

beautifully executed – it looks so lifelike that at any moment I expect him to get up, give himself a shake and run off.  What I find amazing is that this style of clipping poodles was obviously fashionable 180 years ago. Poodles may well have originated as gun dogs but these fancy clipping styles made them almost cheeky targets for jewellery images.

Away from the hint of sweetness, these two silver 18th and 19th century pug snuff boxes wonderfully capture the solidity of pugs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another jewellery medium for portraying animals was enamelling.  Like the micromosaic it could be beautifully made and very realistic.  These four dogs and one boar epitomise the

skill that went into rather modest pieces.  These five, are enamelled on copper and are hollow backed.  They were made around 1900, and are still waiting to be made into brooches or stick pins.

Looking at these reminds me of when years ago I bought a collection of 40 enamelled dog brooches. They were beautiful and almost photographic in detail. They were, though, an absolute nightmare to sell. Customers would come, see the dog that they thought was exactly like their dog. But on closer inspection it wasn’t.  Their pet  had a white patch on its ear or longer legs or more spots and then a conversation would begin that could go on for hours about how if my dog were more like their dog, then they would buy the brooch but it was such a pity that it wasn’t and didn’t I really have a brooch of their dog with longer legs under the stand? In the end I took them out of the showcase, gave them to someone else to sell and swore never to buy anything that could remotely resemble someone’s pet.

A few more frivolous examples of dogs in jewellery.