Fashion

Every year vast amounts of cash are spent on cards, flowers, jewellery, and other gifts for Valentines Day and each year there seems to be more. More advertising for it as well. Thus commercialism has made the 14th February one of the most publicized money spenders. Jewellery gifts of hearts and “Love” bracelets, necklaces, ring, and earrings, are always in demand in gold, silver, and platinum.

This is not only a modern idea. It actually dates far back to historical times mainly to the celebration of the Roman festival Lupercalia devoted to the God of Agriculture. Can be attributed to Romulus and Remus, who, supposedly, founded Rome. This festive occasion took place about the 14-15th February.

According to legend, there used to be a gathering of priests at a cave considered to be sacred. There they sacrificed a goat to promote fertility and a dog for purification. Tearing the goats hide into strips the priests would then go and slap the crops in the fields and the women tending to them as an encouragement for them to conceive. The women then put their names into an urn. Then the young men of the area would choose a name from it and that women would be his constant companion for the year.

According to another fable the Emperor Claudius ll believed single men made better soldiers than married ones. So he forbade marriage for those in the military. Apparently, Valentine disagreed with this and he continued to perform marriages in secret. Upon being discovered he was put to death.

A third story about Valentine claims he helped Christians escape from the severe conditions of the Roman prisons. Caught and imprisoned himself he fell in love with his jailor’s blind daughter who used to visit him. Before his death wrote her a good-bye love letter which he signed “from your Valentine”.

During the Middle Ages Valentine greetings became popular and by the middle of the 18th century, it was the norm to give handwritten notes of affection and other romantic notions on 14th February, with printed cards in fashion by 1900.

All this is in the past, but, the celebration of St. Valentines Day is considered as an ongoing day of love and romance worldwide.

See the selection of Jewellery for giving your loved one at Edellie jewellery online shop.

Victorian jewellery began with the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837. This youthful queen was passionate about jewelry. Besides wearing jewellery she often had her own designs crafted. She loved giving jewelry as gifts particularly charm bracelets and charm necklaces. Every New Year the queen gave members of her family and her circle of friends’ gifts of these charm bracelets and necklaces.

This was the time of the beginning of the industrial revolution and mass production. The Queen’s preferences were soon adopted and produced by the trades jewellers and goldsmiths. Her jewellery choice for mourning jewelry was predominant after the death of her husband, Albert.

Mourning Jewellery

When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria once again influenced jewelry design and production. For the remainder of her life, she was in permanent mourning, wearing only black clothes and black jewels. Jet, a driftwood fossil that gained sudden public popularity for jewelry manufacture was among the Queen’s favourites. Besides Jet crosses, Jet pins and earrings, and carved Jet chains, items that used to be made in gems, glass, and metal. All now appeared produced in Jet. Another popular item in mourning jewellery of the time was a locket holding a lock of the dead loved one’s hair.

What the industrial revolution brought about

As the industrial revolution gained momentum, manufacturing techniques became more affordable. Pressed glass was used for glass intaglios, stamped and cast metal was introduced for settings, and machinery for chain making came about. This meant that jewellery selections were not confined only to nobility or the very wealthy. It became available for all people to buy for the finishing touch to their wardrobes.

In the beginning however, many Victorian women rebelled at the machine made jewellery at first sight, even though many pieces were of a very high standard.

At the start of the 1800’s, hand-carved semi-precious gem intaglio or cameo was rare, making it a treasured possession. From about 1807 hand carved Conch shell cameos began to gain in popularity. It was so much easier to carve a shell than stone, and so a new form of production artistry emerged. Travellers would return from Italy with carved shell cameo necklaces, rings, and earrings or even lava stone cameos carved from the coloured lava of Mt. Vesuvius.
Edellie, a jewellery online shop offers you varied and interesting selections of jewellery.

Going back in time to life during the 16th and 17th centuries, many jewellery articles were produced in Spain by immigrant goldsmiths of varied origins. It was a period when sumptuous jewellery was the norm to wear by the Spaniards due to it’s being such a wealthy country. Jewellery pieces such as beautiful long pendant earrings were among the very popular. These were often decorated with enamelling as well as set with pearls and various gemstones.

A lot of the Spanish jewelry of that era was set with Peruvian emeralds and these were often decorated on the reverse side with engraved designs. For the less expensive earrings, there was a green paste used for resembling imitation emeralds. This gave the items an effect of being set with an emerald. Another typical styling was the Hispano-Moresque jewellery. It was much more ornate and invariably came highly decorated with filigree enamel.

Spanish religious jewellery

Members of religious orders wore badges made of gilded brass, sometimes they were also in gold, decorated with opaque enamelling on a background of white, blue, or black. Some of the badges were square others triangular, or oval. They had two sections. The central area with a religious design and a frame surrounding it with a rayed rim. The reverse side had a miniature set under a crystal.

A later type of popular Spanish jewelry during the 16th and 17th centuries was a brooch known as a Lazo. This was made of openwork gold and gemstones and crafted in the form of a bow-knot. Some of them also came with a pendant stone. The reverse side displayed floral designed engraving.

Moden Spanish style Jewellery

Today, many popular designs for jewelry items are based on Spanish styles from past eras. In particular, necklaces coming with delicate filigree designing. Toledo in Spain is an area well-known for this particular jewellery selection.
However, you don’t have to visit Spain for intricately styled delicate Jewels, simply look for fashion jewelry online at Edellie Jewellery online shop. You will be delighted with the selection they have on offer. Besides the Edellie Swiss Jewellery Brand, they carry the brands of great designers such as Djula, Nialaya, and Mira Sadi.

Historically, devotional jewellery played an important part in the earthly power and religion of everyday life. There were magnificent and extravagant pieces worn for displaying political strength with mythological figures and scenes often engraved on gems. Certain stones were considered to be a protection against various ailments. It ranged from a toothache to that of the evil eye, while others encouraged bravery or discouraged sadness.

Scorpions, in particular, were highly regarded as a protection in amulets because they were believed to prevent or heal poisoning. In later years jewellery was often found in excavated tombs with scorpions carved in Greek and Roman stones. As well, Scorpions were the symbol of the Zodiac sign Scorpio. Ancient remedies to cool fever included the infusion of scorpions in oils and herbs.

Necklaces in the early world

The early cultures made necklace jewellery of strings of shells, teeth, or bone beads. Necklaces were made to display appropriate decorative and stylistic features through each period and from region to region. An early type of Celtic necklace about 1800-1500 B.C.E. included a flat crescent shape and engraved variation of the torque. This neckpiece was made of twisted metal found in Bronze Age Ireland and Scotland. Gold, a rare highly valued material in Celtic Ireland was often buried with its owner, sometimes found by archaeologists in the form of gold collars folded in half.

Jewels in the Middle Ages

Jewellery developed into a more important form of dress during the Middle Ages with necklaces replacing brooches in the late Gothic and early Renaissance era.They came set with gemstones, and heavy gold chain necklaces with pendants denoted wealth and social status from the fourteenth to the start of the seventeenth centuries. Among the styles was a carcanet, a wide jewelled or enamelled gold link necklace resembling a collar. It encircled the base of the neck over a man’s doublet under an elaborate lace ruff, otherwise, it hung over the shoulders down the front of bodices and doublets.

During the fifteenth century, devotional items of jewellery considered to have secular or magical powers were signet rings. For the Christin religion, the signet rings were decorated with religious symbols or inscriptions, and pendants decorated with relief figures of saints were popular. Today, there are a variety of plain or ornamented crosses in gold or silver available as well as many other religious items.