Archive for Dictionary
A to Z of vintage jewellery
Posted by: | CommentsA to Z of vintage Jewellery.
Last year I wrote several series’s on antiquesavenue blog including buying at auctions and the history of vintage jewellery. This year I though it would be fun to compile an A to Z of Vintage jewellery and give this an interesting twist and to build into a type of encyclopedia or dictionary for jewellery lovers.
Instead of just starting at A an listing everything I can find under each letter I am going to compile at least six different A to Z listings. So far I have Materials, Styles, Makers, Occasions , Type and Accessories. If I ever manage this I may even add a historical jewels list and terms . Can you think of a couple more ? It would be great to compile 10 lists.
Materials, Abalone to Zircon
Styles, Art Deco to Zoomorphic
Makers, Armarni to Zuni
Terms, Adularescence to Zircon cut
And three where I need some inspiration for the X, Y,Z:
Type or function, Arm to Wrist and Albert to watch chain ( same thing different name!)
Occasion, Anniversary to Wedding
Vintage Accessories from Amulet to Watch
I’m hoping to source lots of photos for each so its quite an undertaking here but it should be great fun and a wonderful reference work when complete. I would welcome any contributions and ideas for the mission X, Y and Z’s. First off will be occasions starting soon so do check back to see the progress.
What is Art Nouveau?
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Art Nouveau Flower
From my postbag today, an e.mail simply asking “What is Art Nouveau?”
Art Nouveau is a decorative style which was originally popular in the latere 1800s and early 1900s. The style is called after a Parisienne shop opened by S. Bing in the 1890s calle “L’Art Nouveau” however the style had been arround for a few years before that shop opened.
Art Nouveau is characterised by naturalistic images and flowing curved lines ~ just look at the poppy flower in the plate above . Some of the major British names associated with the art nouveau movement are Liberty, Aubrey Vincent Beardsley and the Glasgow Movement including Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Today you can still buy original Art nouveau works of art and decorative artifacts including Jewellery, silver and pewter vessels. If you are looking to aquire original pieces of Art Nouveau at a reasonble price I suggest a piece of Charles Horner silver ( Jewellery or a Hat Pin) or a nice art Nouveau tile. Nice examples can still be obtained from arround £50.
Chinese Pattern
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- chinese pattern tile
Chinese Pattern:
Recently I described some tiles (see picture above) as ” Chinese pattern” and found that there is lots of interest in this design. I set out to discover a bit more about “Chinese Pattern” and found that it encompasses a wide range of designs including the popular “Willow Pattern”.
Willow pattern:
Wiki Claims: “The pattern was designed by Thomas Minton around 1790 and has been in use for over 200 years. Other references give alternate origins, such as Thomas Turner of Caughley porcelain, with a design date of 1780.”
Spode Claims: “The Willow pattern was developed by Josiah Spode from an original Chinese pattern called Mandarin in about 1790.”
Wherever it originated Willow Pattern is manufactured today by many of the top Staffordshire potters and is avaiable on both porcelain and pottery pieces. As you can see from the tile Chinese Pattern is not limited to the Willow pattern . It also comes in many colours other than blue and white
Where can I see Pictures of Chinese Pattern?
Where can I buy Chinese Pattern?
I have added a few nice books on Chinese pattern to my Bookstore for you to take a look at.
