Lace-work platinum is the trade name for the elaborately pierced, millegrained and engraved platinum technique that defined Edwardian-period fine jewellery from approximately 1900 through the First World War. The style takes its name from the resemblance of the finished work to fine bobbin lace, with delicate openwork frames, scrolled ribbon motifs, garlands, bow-knots and tassels, all rendered in platinum strong enough to support the work at vanishingly fine cross-section.

Technical foundation

The technique was made possible by the commercial availability of platinum at jewellery scale in the late nineteenth century, following the development of the oxy-hydrogen torch (Deville and Debray, 1857) which allowed platinum to be melted reliably, and by the subsequent improvements in alloy formulation that produced workable platinum-iridium and platinum-cobalt alloys. Earlier jewellers had used platinum sparingly because the metal could not be reliably melted in the standard goldsmith's forge; once that obstacle was removed, the platinum's combination of strength, ductility, neutral white colour and workability made it ideally suited to the fine pierced work the period favoured.

The construction sequence began with a metal sheet, typically platinum 90 percent with iridium 10 percent, rolled to between 0.5 and 1.5 millimetres thickness depending on the piece. The design was transferred to the sheet by piercing or scribing, and the openwork was cut out with fine jeweller's saws. The remaining frame was then chased and engraved to receive its decorative elements, and the millegrain edge (a tiny beaded border produced with a knurled wheel) was applied along the visible edges. Stones, principally diamond and pearl, were then set in the prepared collets and the finished work assembled.

The aesthetic

Edwardian taste favoured the delicate, the white-on-white, and the architectural reference to French eighteenth-century court style. Lace-work platinum embodied each of these in turn. Diamonds set in platinum collets, against a platinum field, with no contrasting yellow gold visible, produced a pure white piece in which the metal almost disappeared and the stones seemed to float. The pierced work added negative space, breaking the otherwise heavy planar surface into ribbons and garlands. Diamond melee in old European, old mine and rose cuts was the dominant stone, often with a small number of pearls or larger principal diamonds providing a focal point.

The form vocabulary drew heavily on eighteenth-century French rococo and Louis XVI revival sources: bow-knots, ribbons, tassels, swags, garland chains, the leaf-and-laurel border, and the scrollwork frame. Cartier's Garland Style (Style Guirlande) is the canonical expression. Other practitioners included Boucheron, Chaumet, Tiffany & Co. (in their Edwardian and early Art Deco transitional work), Black, Starr & Frost, and a wider range of London houses including Hancocks and Carrington.

The principal forms

The diadem and tiara, the corsage ornament and the brooch were the showcase forms for lace-work platinum. The Cartier and Chaumet tiaras of the early twentieth century, the Cartier wedding pieces commissioned by the European royal houses and by American heiresses, and the great corsage ornaments of the Belle Epoque all exemplify the technique. Necklace plaques in lavalliere and rivière forms, pendant earrings, and broad bracelets and chokers (collier de chien) followed the same vocabulary at smaller scale. Rings used the technique sparingly, since the working hand of a ring required more durable construction than full lace-work could provide.

Stone setting

The diamond setting in lace-work platinum was almost invariably bezel or millegrain bezel rather than prong, in keeping with the period's pursuit of an unbroken white surface. The diamond was set in a collet of fine platinum wire or sheet, the edge of the collet brought up against the stone with a graver and pusher, and the millegrain border applied with a beading tool to give a final beaded edge. The result was a stone that appeared to sit lightly on the surface of the work, with no visible prong.

The setting technique required exceptional skill: the platinum was thin, the stones were typically small and the tolerances were unforgiving. A modern jeweller restoring an Edwardian lace-work piece will often find the original setting has held the stone for over a century without movement, a tribute to the careful workmanship.

The end of the period

Lace-work platinum jewellery was a labour-intensive product of a particular moment. The First World War interrupted production: platinum was diverted to military use as a catalyst, gold prices rose, and the labour of the highly skilled bench jewellers became scarce. By the early 1920s the geometric Art Deco style had displaced the rococo Garland Style in fashion, and although platinum continued to be the dominant fine metal, it was now used in cleaner, more architectural compositions. The lace-work era was effectively over by 1925.

Restoration and care

Lace-work platinum jewellery is now over a century old in its earliest examples, and surviving pieces are valued both as historical objects and as still-wearable jewellery. Restoration requires specialist skill: the original platinum alloys have particular working characteristics, the millegrain borders cannot be replicated by modern beading tools without practice, and the pierced openwork is fragile against bench accident. The leading restoration houses for Edwardian lace-work include the heritage workshops at Cartier, Boucheron and Chaumet, several specialist independent restorers in London, Geneva and New York, and a small number of Indian and Italian workshops with the relevant skill base.

For wear, lace-work platinum requires care. The pierced openwork can catch on clothing and snag, the bezel-set small stones can be lost if the bezels are damaged, and the millegrain borders can be worn flat by everyday use. Most surviving pieces are now reserved for occasion wear rather than daily use, and the major auction houses regularly offer them in their fine jewellery and Belle Epoque sales.

Trade significance

Lace-work platinum represents one of the highest expressions of the European jewellery craft tradition, drawing on centuries of accumulated technique in pierced metalwork and applying it to the platinum-and-diamond combination that the period had only just made possible. Surviving pieces in good condition, particularly signed Cartier, Boucheron and Chaumet examples, command significant prices at auction, with major examples reaching seven and occasionally eight figures. The continuing presence of the technique in heritage workshop revivals, in pieces produced for the contemporary haute joaillerie market, attests to its enduring aesthetic and technical authority.