The Cheapside Hoard

The Cheapside Hoard is a hoard of jewellery from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, discovered in 1912 by workmen using a pickaxe to excavate in a cellar at 30-32 Cheapside in London, on the corner with Friday Street. They found a buried wooden box containing more than 400 pieces of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery, including rings, brooches and chains, with bright coloured gemstones and enamelled gold settings, together with toadstones, cameos, scent bottles, fan holders, crystal tankards and a salt cellar. Most of the hoard is now in the Museum of London, with some items held by the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Pink citrine cross, Cheapside Hoard

Salamander cabochon brooch, 17th century

Large stones were frequently bezel set on rings

The location where the hoard was found is thought to have been the premises of a Jacobean goldsmith, and the hoard is generally considered to have been a jeweller's working stock buried in the cellar during the English Civil War. Cheapside was at the commercial heart of the City of London in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, with shops for the sale of luxury goods, including many goldsmiths. The location, a row of houses on the south of Cheapside, to the east of St Paul's Cathedral and to the west of St Mary-le-Bow, was owned by theWorshipful Company of Goldsmiths and was known as Goldsmith's Row, was formerly the center of the manufacture and sale of gold and jewellery in medieval London.

Here it was in the state it was found – a huge pile of tumbled, jumbled necklaces, rings, brooches, hat-pins, chains of delicate enamel flowers and other bits and bobs – an unbelievably gorgeous watch carved out of a single huge emerald, and a cascade of tiny bunches of grapes wrought from amethysts and emeralds, and made into a myriad pairs of earrings…

Emerald watch, hollowed out from a Colombian Emerald, 1600

Here’s the story:-

June 18 1912. Midsummer in the city, and a normal, dusty, dirty working day for the  labourers demolishing three dilapidated tenement buildings on the corner of Cheapside and Friday Street, in the heart of the City of London. 

However, at some time that day the routine drudgery took an unexpected turn: the navvies literally struck gold. As workmen began to break up the brick-lined Tudor cellar with their picks, they noticed something glinting in the soil. Furiously casting aside the old brick, a tangled heap of jewellery, gems and precious stones came tumbling forth. What they had stumbled upon was the discovery of a lifetime. Some six feet below the brickwork, in a dank cellar, they unearthed a stash of tangled treasure including gold, jewels, rock-crystal dishes, carved gem figures, cameos, enamelled chains, clasps, bodkins, badges, buttons, beads, an exquisite perfume bottle and an emerald watch. They could not know it at the time, but this was the stock-in-trade of a 17th-century jeweller and had been lying undisturbed for 300 years. The circumstances under which it was buried are still unknown.

The Cheapside Hoard, as it is now known, was – and is – the largest and most important treasure of its kind ever to be found, a captivating collection of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery, and a true time capsule.

Since it was unearthed over 100 years ago, the Cheapside Hoard has attracted worldwide attention. The Hoard includes delicate finger rings, glittering necklaces, Byzantine cameos and a beautiful jewelled scent bottle. The range of gems is staggering, and demonstrates the international trade in luzury goods in the period – diamonds and rubies from India, pearls from the Middle East and sapphires from Sri Lanka as well as a unique Colombian emerald watch and a remarkable emerald-studded salamander brooch which combines cabochon emeralds from Columbia with table-cut diamonds from India and European enamelling.

Goldsmith's Row was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The buildings were reconstructed by the Goldsmiths' Company in 1667, and were redeveloped in 1912.

Sources:  Wikipedia.com

Opulence and Naturalism: Georgian Jewelry, 1714-1830

English Georgian emerald and diamond sevinge brooch/pendant, 1750-1770.  This piece might have hung off or a choker necklace.

Original Pink Parure, Circa 1780.  A matched set meant to add elegant finish to a gown, the pins could be added in the hair, or on the bodice.

Stunning 1740s georgian emerald and diamond paste earrings

Girandole earrings, named after elaborate candelabras of the period, often had 3 dangles off of center settings and were a literal symbol of  the "Enlightenment".

One of the most fascinating and opulent eras for fine jewelry was the Georgian period, which spans from the early 18th century to about 1830.  The French revolution grew out of such a large class divide in our history it is hard to fathom it, but prior to this period, jewelry was made to suggest the opulence of the ultra-wealthy.  The heavy ornamentation of the Baroque period was still evident, but silver became a more popular setting than gold.  Gems or glass stones, called pastes, were set in beautiful pieces so that the wealthy could flaunt their opulent taste.  With most jewels cut in the rose cut and cabochon styles (which had been around since the middle ages), jewellers could use real stones or glass pastes to achieve the effect.  The jeweller would create single setting for the piece with a closed back, then they would cut the jewel or glass to shape;  they would then carefully add a small piece of foil into each setting they created before adding the jewel.  Not only was the single setting idea very economical for the period when things are still made by hand, but the foiled stones could act as a kind of mirror so that the rear of the piece, though covered, still shone as if light was passing through.  This must have been stunning in the candelight salons and balls of the era.  Earrings were fashionably heavy and large, called Girandoles, and many times necklaces were strung on ribbon so the length could be altered to  worn as a choker.  For an added bit of drama, women wore elaborate stomacher jewels, fobs, chatelains and equipages on their person.  These carried utilitarian items like wax, perfume, and snuff right on the person, but were also decorative. Fashionable men wore paste shoe buckles, slides and pins, and equipages and chatelaines for their watches and snuff boxes.

Woman with Girandole earrings, painted 1767

18th century chatelaine with watch.  Chatelaines were worn by men and women, and were often attached at the waist to the bodice or vest.  This chatelain appears to have a watch, a wax seal (for sealing letters) and a small watch wind key at left.  This would have belonged to a noble lady or gentleman.

Woman with chatelaines hanging from her bodice, late 18th century.

Georgian shoe buckle, 18th century.  Buckles like this were set with paste glass and were curved to rest on the instep of the shoe.

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Thomas Frye 1761 wearing a parure set including tiara or head comb.  Note the choker length of the necklace and girandole earrings.

Gold was not in as much favor as the silver jewelry, perhaps because it recalled the heaviness of the Baroque era that came before it.  The Spanish, who had gold interests in South America, still held to tradition and typically wore more gold than other countries in Europe.

Portrait of Marie Francisca Agnelli by Anton Mengs, 1769.  This woman may have been of Spanish descent because she is wearing relatively unpopular gold jewelry.  Note the large Stomacher jewel in the front of her gown, which could be removed and added to a different dress.

Georgian Gold and Amethyst Parure, 1770.  Gold was more common in Spain because of the South American colonies.  Many bracelets in the era were typified by the large box clasp and catch chain, which can be seen on the bracelet.

The elite classes were not the only ones who wore jewelry.  The merchant and servant classes often had pieces made for sentimental purposes, or had jewelry passed down to them from the higher classes.  It was not unusual for a servant girl to be wearing clothing and jewelry from prior decades.  The pieces worn by the merchant classes were often utilitarian, and included: Mementos mori (mourning mementos), miniature portrait pendants, and buckles and belts, fasteners and slides.

Lover's Eye Jewelry, 1780-1800, painted enamel and paste.  This was a love token,  probably given by a fiance or fiancee to celebrate an engagement.

1750-1755 (circa), Badge of the Anti-Gallican Society. Painted enamel scene with paste surround.  Anti-French sentiment, represented here by a British royal scene, was probably part of a growing trend then to shun the lifestyle of the ruling classes, which culminated in the French Revolution of 1789.

A Memento Mori figure in painted ivory with paste amethyst stones, created to commemorate a burial 1790s.  Mementos Mori were a long standing practice, and all classes of society wore them to remember those who passed.  This practice continued into the early 20th century.

"Portrait of Ms Lockwood" Andrew Plimer, 1788.  In an era before photographs, people relied on portrait jewelry of their loved ones, and often carried them on their person.  This was also a universal practice, and not just reserved for the upper classes.

Russian Royal, 18th century, wearing a portrait brooch on her bodice.

After the French Revolution, Georgian Jewelry changes.  Most of the Georgian Jewelry available on the marketplace today is from the later dates of 1800-1830 because earlier pieces were rare to survive not only the french revolution, but jewellers often took old jewels out of old settings and repurposed them.  As a result, Georgian jewelry is generally rare to find in its original setting, and this includes late Georgian jewelry.  This era begins to transition into the later Victorian styles, and exhibits the naturalism that was becoming such a popular motif. Floral and scroll motifs are typical of the period and the most common stones used are garnets, precious topaz, coral rather than diamonds, emeralds and rubies.   Cameos connected by a chain were popular, as were elements from nature, including birds  and leaves. 

Necklace, italy, 1810.  A naturalistic motif represented by small painted landscape ivory cameos.

Georgian Riviere ("river of stones") necklace, circa 1800

Georgian Riviere necklace Amethyst, 1820

Countess Daru, 1810 wearing green citrine riviere necklace.

French, 1820 necklace, cannetile style.  The cannetile style was a setting similar to filigree.

How to tell real pearls from imitation

Here is an interesting article from Pearl-Lang pearls on how to tell if your pearls are real or fake.  I have tried to do this with three strands of pearls I own, one of which I was convinced was real, but no!  After the tooth test and close examination, I have 3 definate fake strands.  But alas, they work well for costuming!! ;)

Pearls are beautiful and valuable. But since the discovery of these rare gems in ancient times, people have been using machines to produce fake ones. 

So how can you tell if a pearl is real? Here are a few tips that can help you identify real pearls from the fake ones.

Temperature

The first step you can take is to touch them and feel the temperature. Real pearls are cold to touch for the first couple of seconds before warming up against your skin. Fake plastic pearls have the same temperature as the room temperature and you don’t feel the coolness when you touch them. However, fake ones that are made of glass beads can be cool to touch to start with. But it tends to take them longer to warm up against your skin than real pearls.

Lustre, Surface Characteristics and Matching

When you examine real pearls closely or under magnification, you’ll notice tiny irregularities and ridges on each pearl’s surface. In a strand of cultured pearls, you can always see very tiny differences between them, even when they are top quality and well matched. If the pearls are completely perfect and identical in terms of shape, size, colour and surface characteristics, they are probably fake.

In addition, cultured pearls reflect light differently from the fake ones. The lustre of fake pearls has a glassy look and is unnatural.

Colour

Both natural and cultured pearls often have an overtone, a translucent colour that appears on the outer surface of a pearl. If you notice the pearls have only one uniform colour and are lack of depth, they are likely to be fake. But it’s worth noting that some real pearls have no overtone either. So this method alone cannot tell the authenticity of a pearl.

Shape

Most real pearls are rarely round. A strand of cultured pearls that are perfectly round commands an extremely high price and is very rare.

Surface Feel

Both natural and cultured pearls have textured surface due to their layered nacre structure. So when you rub the pearls lightly against each other or on your front teeth, they feel a little gritty. Fake or imitation pearls, however, usually feel smooth or glassy.

Weight

Real pearls are normally heavier than the fake ones.

Drill Holes

The drill holes in real pearls are usually very small whereas those in imitation pearls are often larger. Under magnification, the coating around the drill holes of fake pearls is normally thin and looks like a shiny paint. You can often see flakes or chipped coating around the drill holes that will eventually peel off.

It’s important to remember that all the methods above cannot be used alone to reach a conclusive judgment on whether or not a pearl is real. It’s always useful to combine several of these methods together to detect fake pearls. You can also have pearls tested in a gemological laboratory for a more conclusive result.

Your retailers should tell you whether the pearls you’re buying are real or fake. You should also be cautious when they tell you the pearls are natural. Natural pearls are formed without human intervention and are extremely rare and expensive.

18th century fashion: dress before and after the French Revolution

The 18th century was a century of great shifts in political and social thinking.  In the beginning of the century, Europe was still dominated by the idea that monarchs were "chosen by God", and this was their true belief.  This idea was so prevelant, that priests and clergymen were often present at the birth of royals in order to ordain their souls as sacrosanct to god and their "chosen position".  This idea begins to fall apart with the Age of Enlightenment, an era from the 1650s to the 1780s, in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority.  

Historically, the garments we wear on our bodies are a direct link to the eras we live in.  In 18th century france, prior to the Revolution, this can be seen directly in the fashions, opulent gowns, and techniques of making clothing for the elite.

Ikat Silk Dress, 1770

Early period 1700-1770: Fancy fashions

As the 18th century dawn the materials, import, and accessibility of dressmakers to make ensembles which allowed women in Europe and especially France to be fashionable was becoming a world market. Silk roads opening in the far east, travellers and explorers bringing back new prints, cottons, and trims, and a fascination with all things "different" began to culminate in this era.  One of the more popular prints was the ikat print technique brought back from india, which is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs a resist dyeing process on the warp fibres, the weft fibres, or in the rare and costly 'double ikat' both warp and weft, prior to dyeing and weaving.  Other popular styles were imitations of delicate China silk and brocade.

China Silk Dress, 18th Century

2 Fans, one French, one Chinese, 18th Century

These exotic prints and influences were an example that the 18th century European woman was a forward thinking fashionista.  An 18th century woman's trousseau was a lifetime achievement, and she ammassed her clothes with a selection an careful thought as to each and every piece.  This new emphasis on fashion is exactly the thought process that sheltered the elite European woman from the goings on of poor, political and working class life.  Even so, not much had changed in the basic "function" of garment making.  The basic "separates" idea of dressmaking and fitting that had been around since the Elizabethan era remained prevelant, with a gown consisting of a stomacher, panniers, robe, stays, and petticoat.   One difference is that previous eras the stomacher, or frontispiece of the gown, was mixed and matched more often with other robes and petticoats because of necessity of expense.  But the 18th century woman had much to prove in the fashion arena, and by the end of the 18th century, most women were asking their dressmakers for matching robes and stomachers.

Early stomacher, 18th century  Often heavily embroidered or ornamented, stomachers could be tied  or sewn into different robes and were therefore the most ornamented piece of a woman's wardrobe.  In earlier eras, this meant a woman could mix and match her stomacher to several gowns and petticoats.

Stomacher and matching gown, mid 18th century. Differently than in previous eras, robes and stomachers were often a matched set. 

Dress and matching stomacher, 1753

Wigs also were an expressive medium, as women all over Paris sought to imitate the elaborate hairdos of Madame du Pompadour and Marie Antoinette.  These looks reached their pinnacle in the mid 18th century,  and hairdos that featured 3-masted ships and birds singing in cages were set atop massive powdered wigs.    

Satire of woman's hairdo, 18th century France.  The caption reads "Coiffure a l'independence ou le Triomphe de la liberte"  which translates in to Hairdo of Independence or Triumph of Liberty.

By the middle-end of the 18th century, fashion had become so aggrandized court gowns often featured panniers so wide that women could not fit through doorways.  They were elaborately embroidered with metallic silk thread.  The emphasis was on making the waist seem as miniscule as possible, and effect achieved in the gown below:

Court Dress, Stockholm Sweden, circa 1774

The lower classes, meanwhile, had no means to partake in such frivolity, and when magazines and newpapers of the era printed images that began to mock and denigrate the ruling elite for their fashion choices, it was noticed.  While peasants starved in the streets, the resentment grew, and in 1789 thousands of people in France began to revolt.  

Servant girl in silk gown, 1750s.  Many servants of the elite wore their Mistresses cast offs, so it was not unusual to see a serving girl or peasant in 2nd or third generation frayed finery, which I imagine added insult to injury.

Transitional period 1770-1800:  

The French Revolution leveled the playing field, and while the cause of naturalism had already been adopted by the elite prior to the revolt, it truly impacted fashion during this era.  We see a marked shift from elaborate materials to quieter, simpler dresses using cottons and smaller prints.  The large ikat prints and elaborate metallic embroidery of previous decades is gone.

A transitional gown, late 18th century.  This straddles the fashion from earlier eras, but the stomacher is gone, and the materials are more simplistic and natural.  Note the large belt with painted landscape scenes.

Women's dress, 1795, a transitional period.  Though the waistline is not as extremely underbust, it effectively straddles the 2 styles with lighter softer materials and a naturalistic style.  Also, the stomacher has become a thing of the past

Children, late 18th century.  Transitional clothing, with naturalistic style beginning to emerge in the materials.

After the Revolution of 1789 the groundwork is laid to move away from the opulence of the previous centuries and we see an abrupt shift in 1800 to a classical dress.  Often made from a single material, this look meant to mimic the classical eras of early Greece and Rome.  From a societal standpoint, one could almost say France was brought back to an infantile state at the time, and was looking to "start over".  It can certainly be seen in the political landscape with he fall of the noble elite in the French Revolution and the interim republics and rise of Napoleon.  The new philosphy of classicism as the "pure" form of thought was a favored by Napoleon, who's agenda was to reject the idea of "sovreignty".   Regardless, as several classes and age groups clung to the traditional dress (by choice or by necessity), society as a whole adopted the new look as a complete rejection of everything that had come before.     

Gauze dress, 1800.  An extreme departure in waistline, the waist is now directly under the bust and the dress has a conical, classical style, in a nod to early Roman and greek chitons.

Painting of a young Regency couple, 1802.  Notice the older lady and gentlemen at the right, who wear the outmoded dress of the previous century.

Regency ball gown, early 1800s

Regency gown, early 1800s.  Cotton embroidered gown with embroidered shawl.

Seasonal Color Analysis

SEASONAL COLOR ANALYSIS

I have been reading recently about Seasonal Color Analysis, and based on what I have learned so far, you have certain colors that pick up a brightness in your look and certain colors that wash you out, do you no favors.  Duh, right?  But in the 80's there was a "science" behind this called Seasonal Color Analysis.  Technicians used to "drape" women with different colors in daylight to find out what colors suited them best.  Eventually, a set pattern seemed to develop of eyes/hair/skintone that calculated you to be in one of the 4 seasons.  And within those there are subcategories of Soft, Light, Bright, Warm, Deep, and Cool, depending on the season.   This is a very interesting concept for designers, because it really can be a useful tool in analyzing what colors do and don't work on your client/actress/self.  If you are trying to find your season, the biggest tell is the eyes, as defined by the first chart.  Its fun to find your color, and the technicians who do this for a living actually "drape" you with colors to find your look.  Below I grouped several models according to what I thought is their seasonal color.  I tried to find subjects who hadn't appeared to alter their natural hair too severely, with neutral lighting to the photographs.  It is fun to find your color, and it opens up a whole new realm for your wardrobe when you realize how the colors you wear really do affect how you look! The clothing color palettes included are skewed towards the Clear/Cool/Warm/Cool categories, but are colors of clothing that will brighten your appearance the best.

Clear Spring

Light Spring

Clear Spring

Warm Spring

Clear Spring

Clear Spring

Light Spring

Clear Spring

Clear Spring

Clear Spring

Clear Spring

BEST COLORS FOR SPRINGS

Warm Spring

Clear Spring

Clear Spring

SUMMER-Cool and Delicate

Summer is defined by cool, cool, cool.  Cool eyes, cool tones to hair and skin (no peach/red) and neutral eyes with the delicate eye pattern of cracked glass and a soft outer rim.  Generally I have found Summers to be ashy brunette/blonde with blue eyes, but hazel and green eyes are common also.  People with brown eyes/gold eyes are rare to fit into the Summer category because they have to be a cool brown rather than a warm brown tone.  Light Summer is the blonde category for summers, Cool Summer has a cool skintone with some contrast to the combination of eyes/skin/hair, and Soft Summer is the same tonality with less contrast, (but not as light as a Light Summer.)  

BEST COLORS FOR SUMMERS

Cool Summer

Light Summer

Soft Summer

Light Summer

Soft Summer

Soft Summer

Cool Summer

Soft Summer

Soft Summer

Soft Summer

Cool Summer

AUTUMN-Warm and Rich
Autumn is the companian season to Spring, meaning the undertones are warm.  Warm skin, warm hair, and warm or neutral eyes.  Since spring and Autumn overlap, many Springs can wear Autumn colors, and vice versa.  The difference between spring and fall seems to lie in the colors:  Fall will inevitably be a deeper, more earthy hue and not have the brightness to their color combination of a true spring.

Soft Autumn

Warm Autumn

Warm Autumn

Warm Autumn

Warm Autumn

Soft Autumn

Soft Autumn

Soft Autumn

Warm Autumn

Soft Autumn

Soft Autumn

Deep Autumn

BEST COLORS FOR AUTUMNS 

Warm Autumn

Deep Autumn

Deep Autumn

Warm Autumn

Warm Autumn

WINTER-Cool and Brilliant
Winter has the highest contrast of skin/hair/eyes and is the companion season to Summer.  Many summers/winters can overlap their colors depending on their chroma.  If we look at true Winters, however, their contrast is quite dramatic and their skin is generally white or cool with pink/blue undertones, and they have a heavy contrast to their look which allows them to wear jewel tones so effortlessly.  Their skin is often translucent.  Winters often attain salt and pepper hair as they grow older.

Deep Winter

BEST COLORS FOR WINTERS

Deep Winter

Deep Winter

Cool Winter

Clear Winter

Clear Winter

Clear Winter

Deep Winter

Cool Winter

Cool Winter

Cool Winter

Cool Winter