Necklaces Through Portraiture and Their Popularity - Part I
by Kimberly K. Walters
by Kimberly K. Walters
This is the first part of a three-part study of
portraits and prints focusing specifically on necklaces from the 15th to late
19th centuries. The main goal is to educate you when deciding on what type of
necklace to wear. Studying portraits and prints for inspiration helps me
design, make, or find jewelry for you to wear for your living history or
costuming needs. It also can help you make decisions when creating an outfit or
interpreting a specific person.
I know I have said this before, but the details are
important! In addition to looking at portraiture, I have also looked at books
on the topic, museum descriptions, and articles, in order to see whether they
confirm what is seen in portraits. I am also very careful when I take
information from another website or blog as I prefer original source materials
if I can find them. It is also important to make sure that what I am looking at is not a
caricature or cartoon of the day. I don't believe that portraiture is the
be-all, end-all of what was available, as sometimes it was the wearer's best or
an artist's fabrication, but I do like using them to recreate jewelry. While I study original pieces, many of them have been altered over time so it isn't a good idea to copy them exactly.
Many of my favorite portraits are shown on my Pinterest page and are
linked to their original sources (not in all cases, but in most). There can be a lot going on in these, so
trying to focus on one aspect takes a bit of discipline as I get sidetracked
looking at the clothing and other accessories.
With that said, there are many styles of necklaces coming
in and out of favor or fashion over the centuries. It really is all about the
fashion or even what was allowed in society in the earlier centuries. If you look closely, you can also see that with certain styles of clothing, the necklaces are worn in certain ways - from a choker, to just at the base of the neck, and hanging lower on the chest. Just as
we have our own tastes in jewelry today, so did those who came before us. There
are common themes in what I have found, but by no means is this an exhaustive
or scholarly work, as I do not have access to every single portrait or scrap of
information out there.
Portrait of Mary Magdalene by Unknown Painter, circa 1457-82
Courtesy of WikimediaCommons.com
We will start with a portrait from the 15th century showing a black
ribbon, a pendant, and a teardrop pearl. This portrait is supposedly Mary Magdalene and would
be an artist's rendition; however, I like to think that it shows the represented fashion of the day, which included jewelry and ornamentation. By this time, certain
techniques and materials were being tried or were available to make
"new" jewelry not seen before. However, the Gothic era of the
14th and 15th centuries saw England following the French in that laws were passed forbidding commoners to adorn themselves with precious jewelry. Few
necklaces from this era have supposedly survived, and it seems that little information is
available regarding their style or use, but what she is wearing is simple and elegant.
The 15th century gives us a
few more examples of simple adornment around the neck with beads and ribbon.
This style is also seen in later centuries. There was supposedly an
official ban on a "display of the neck and shoulders" with the neckline
steadily falling during the last decades of this era until the full décolletage
became universal. I have not really come into too many portraits during this time that show this, but I am sure they are out there. With the ban being lifted or ignored, we see jeweled, ribbon, and beaded necklaces and
chokers.
Portrait of a lady by Fra Filippo Lippi, circa 1440
Courtesy Wikimedia.com
Courtesy Wikimedia.com
Portrait of a Woman by Sandro Botticelli, Circa 1485
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Portrait of a Lady by Domenico Ghirlandaio, second half 15th century
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
We transition into the 16th
century and see more lovely necklaces made with pearls, chain, jewels combined
with pearls, metal pendants with pearls, and lovely bead combinations. Pearls
had been available in Europe earlier as seen in portraiture, but by the
mid-16th century, exploration, travel, and trade by explorers rendered them
available in much larger quantities than before. The fashion for pearl, chain,
jewels or a combination thereof—including those that were very long and wound
around the neck several times, or swagged and pinned in place across the
bodice.
Design for Jewelry by Arnold Lulls (1585-1640)
47 graduated pearls
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collections
for educational purposes only
Maso da Portrait of Elena Gaddi Quartesi, by Maso da San Friano, circa 1550
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Jeanne d'Albret by Francois Clouet, 1570
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Maria de Medici by Angelo Bronzino, 1551
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Portrait of a Lady in a Black Robe attributed to François Quesnel 16th Century
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Design for Jewelry by Arnold Lulls 1560 (made)
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collections
for educational purposes only
The 17th century ushered in some new
styles and innovations. A new type of construction was being done by using
ribbon to thread together precious stones in their settings. This technique was
supposedly the start of the necklace known as the "Riviere." We can
see in the 16th century that they were threading pearls this way (as well as in
later 18th century portraits - here), with what
looks like thread. More elaborate necklaces also had a series of cluster
pendants suspended from a chain or cord and tied around the neck.
(As an aside, Memento Mori jewelry with coffins,
skulls, skeletons and other macabre themes also came about during this time.
Miniature portraits were also being favored.)
Enameled Necklace of the Cheapside Hoard
Courtesy of Museum of London
Courtesy of Museum of London
One of the most significant finds in the early 20th
century was what they call "The Cheapside Hoard." This stash of
jewelry was made in the 1600-1640 time frame. A significant amount of gold
jewelry was found under a house in Cheapside, London near St. Paul's Cathedral.
The “hoard” is now in museums (the Museum of London and The Victoria and Albert
Museum) and is surmised to be part of a jeweler's stock. Only a few items of
the finest court quality were found; much of it would have been suited to the
purses of the lesser nobility and the successful late Tudor or early Stuart
merchant class—the type of jewelry that could have been melted down and
reworked as fashion changed. The unique styles and shapes discovered included
openwork enameled gold pendants with rose-cut gems and, to focus on
neckware, there was a garnet and sapphire pendant, as well as 35 different
chains, 83 other pendants, and unmounted gems (semi-precious and paste),
intaglios, and cameos. If this jewelry was for the merchant class, just imagine
what was being made for the nobility! Enameling was also used to enrich the
colors to give a light and delicate effect with a white background.
In America, jewelry included diamond and pearls. Most of the jewelry was still fashioned
abroad and imported. By the end of the
century, American-made jewelry started to be seen. There was also
evidence in inventories of amber necklaces owned by women like Elizabeth Tatham
of New Jersey, which was thought to have therapeutic qualities (and
supposedly burned to cleanse the air for the sick).
In general, jewelry worn had
a utilitarian aspect to much of what was worn in the British colonies during
this time possibly due to the effects of the Reformation and Civil War in
England. Dutch colonists had a particular fondness for diamonds due to
their sparkle. The Puritans had greater restraint in what they owned, but
Mrs. Ursula Cutt of Portsmouth, New Hampshire owned agate pendants and a seed
pearl necklace in 1674. There is a very elaborate gold and pearl necklace
with a pear shaped pearl drop suspended from the knot of Elizabeth Eggington's
hood in a portrait painted in 1664. The necklace looks to be a
combination collar and festoon necklace. The portrait is copyrighted but
can be found here.
Princess Elizabeth, aged about 10 years old by Robert Peake the Elder - circa 1606
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Portrait of Cosimo de’ Medici III, by Justus Sustermans, Flemish School, 1642/43
Courtesy WikimediaCommons.com
Catherine Barthe by Jacob Ferdinand Voet, 1660-1700
Courtesy of WikimediaCommons.com
Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615)
Image Courtesy of The Lost Gallery, Flickr
Part two will focus on the 18th Century.
Sources:
Jewelry in America 1600-1900, by Martha Gandy Fales, Antique Collector's Club, Ltd., 1995
The History of the Necklace, Antique Jewelry University
7000 years of Jewelry, edited by Hugh Tait, Firefly Books, 2006
The Cheapside Hoard London's Lost Jewels, by Hazel Forsyth, Museum of London 2013
Victorian and Albert Museum Collections on-line