Edwardian jewellery denotes the body of work produced principally in Britain, France, and the United States during the reign of King Edward VII (1901-1910) and the immediately surrounding years, broadly 1895 to 1914 - that is, from the late Victorian transition through to the outbreak of the First World War. The period coincides with what the French call the Belle Époque, and the two terms are nearly synonymous, with "Edwardian" preferred in Anglophone usage and "Belle Époque" preferred in French and continental European literature. The defining technical innovation of the period is the systematic use of platinum as the principal jewellery metal, allowing the production of lace-like diamond settings of unprecedented delicacy, and the defining stylistic vocabulary is one of garlands, bows, swags, ribbons, and floral motifs drawing on eighteenth-century French ornament. The period is widely recognised, in the trade and in the museum world, as one of the technical high points of European jewellery making.

The platinum revolution

The single most consequential technical development of the Edwardian period was the adoption of platinum as the primary structural metal for fine jewellery. Platinum had been known since the eighteenth century but had been difficult to work because of its very high melting point (1,768°C, compared to 1,064°C for gold), and earlier nineteenth-century jewellery had been made overwhelmingly in silver-on-gold construction (silver providing the white setting for diamonds, gold providing the structural backing for durability). The introduction of the oxy-hydrogen torch and other high-temperature gas-flame techniques in the late nineteenth century made platinum workable at the bench, and the major French firms - particularly Cartier, which is generally credited with the systematic adoption of platinum from around 1899 - led the transition. Platinum's white colour, very high tensile strength, and corrosion resistance allowed jewellers to produce extremely fine settings, including the millegrain edge (a beaded edge running along the metal between the diamonds), the knife-edge (a narrow ridge of metal seen edge-on), the calibré channel (a continuous setting for calibrated stones), and the lace-like openwork that became the visual signature of the period.

The garland style and the eighteenth-century revival

The principal stylistic vocabulary of Edwardian jewellery drew on the ornament of eighteenth-century France - the Louis XV, Louis XVI, and early Louis-Philippe periods - reinterpreted through the technical capabilities of platinum-and-diamond construction. The garland style (le style guirlande) became the dominant idiom, with garlands of leaves and flowers, bows, ribbons, swags, and tassels rendered in fine pavé-set diamond on platinum framework. Cartier in particular championed the garland style under the leadership of Louis Cartier, who joined the firm in 1898 and made the eighteenth-century revival the central tenet of the maison's design programme through the early twentieth century. The Lalique-influenced Art Nouveau tradition, while flourishing in parallel during the same years, occupied a different stylistic register and is generally treated as a separate although overlapping movement.

Stones and settings

The Edwardian period favoured diamonds above all other stones, and most Edwardian jewellery is constructed around fine white diamond pavé and accent stones in older European cuts - the cushion brilliant, the early round brilliant (with the Tolkowsky proportions established in 1919, after the Edwardian period proper), the rose cut, and the marquise. Coloured stones were used sparingly: large central sapphires (particularly Kashmir sapphires, whose post-1882 production reached its peak distribution in this period), emeralds from Colombian production, and rubies from Burma all appear in important Edwardian pieces, but the predominant visual register was white diamond on platinum. Pearls - both natural saltwater pearls from the Persian Gulf and the Sri Lankan fisheries, before the rise of cultured pearls from 1916 onward - played a central role, with multi-strand necklaces, pearl-and-diamond chokers (the dog-collar or collier de chien), and pearl pendants among the most characteristic Edwardian forms.

Forms and types

Edwardian jewellery includes a wide range of forms, but several types are particularly characteristic. The tiara reached its peak of production and popularity during the period, with Cartier producing more than a hundred tiaras for European royalty and the high aristocracy between 1900 and 1914 alone. The dog-collar choker, also called the collier de chien, was a high-set diamond-and-pearl band worn tightly around the throat, popularised by Queen Alexandra (consort of Edward VII) who wore it to conceal a small scar on her neck. The négligée - a long pendant with two unequal drops - and the sautoir - a long pearl or diamond chain reaching to the waist, often terminating in a tassel or pendant - were both characteristic of the period. Aigrettes, brooches and hair ornaments shaped like a feather, drew on the popularity of feather-ornamented hairstyles. Stomachers - large diamond-set pendant brooches worn at the centre of the bodice - completed the formal ensemble.

The principal makers

The defining makers of the Edwardian-Belle Époque period include Cartier (Paris, London from 1902, New York from 1909), the leading exponent of the garland style; Boucheron, founded 1858; Fouquet, with Georges Fouquet's Art Nouveau direction; Lalique, although primarily an Art Nouveau maker, with significant production in the period; Mellerio dits Meller; and the British firm Garrard (Crown Jewellers since 1843). In the United States, Tiffany & Co. under Louis Comfort Tiffany's direction, Marcus & Co., Black, Starr & Frost, and the Newark firm Krementz produced important Edwardian work. Chaumet (Paris) and Mauboussin (founded 1827) round out the major French houses.

End of the period and the Art Deco transition

The Edwardian period closes with the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, which disrupted the European luxury trade, redirected platinum supplies to military applications (platinum-tipped detonators in particular), and broke the social context of the great formal jewellery occasions. The post-war period saw a stylistic transition through the early 1920s and into the full Art Deco period of 1925 onward, with the geometric, machine-age vocabulary of Deco displacing the garland style and the eighteenth-century romantic revival. Many Edwardian pieces were broken up and reset in Art Deco style during the 1920s and 1930s, which has reduced the surviving population of intact Edwardian jewellery and increased the auction premium for authentic, untouched pieces of the period.

Place in the market

Edwardian jewellery occupies a central place in the antique-jewellery and high-auction market, with intact pieces by the major Paris and London houses commanding substantial prices, particularly when documented and signed. The technical refinement of the work, the favourable comparison with subsequent periods, the strong association with royal and aristocratic provenance, and the relative scarcity of intact survivals all support continued market strength. Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, and the specialist antique-jewellery dealers - particularly Lang Antiques in San Francisco, Bell & Bird in London, and the New York and Paris galleries that specialise in the period - sustain a deep secondary market for the work.