Jewellery Glossary

A

Acrostic jewellery: Jewellery set with a row of gemstones whose initial letters spell a word, such as REGARD (ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby, diamond) or DEAREST. Fashionable in late Georgian and early Victorian Britain.
Aigrette: A jewelled ornament for the hair or hat in the form of a feather or spray, originally designed to hold an egret plume. Fashionable in the 18th century and again from about 1900 to the 1920s.
Albert chain: A man's watch chain worn across the waistcoat, from a buttonhole to the watch pocket, named after Prince Albert. Common from the mid-19th century.
Aquamarine: Pale blue to blue-green beryl - the same mineral as emerald. Especially popular in Edwardian, Art Deco and 1940s jewellery.
Assay office: An independent office that tests the purity of precious metal and strikes hallmarks. The UK offices today are London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh.

B

Baguette: A small, narrow rectangular step-cut stone, usually a diamond. Characteristic of Art Deco jewellery from the 1920s onward.
Bandeau: A tiara or jewelled band worn low across the forehead or around the head, fashionable in the 1910s and 1920s.
Bangle: A rigid bracelet - either a solid hoop slipped over the hand, or a hinged hoop closed with a clasp.
Berlin iron: Delicate cast-iron jewellery made in Prussia in the early 19th century. During the wars against Napoleon, Prussians gave their gold jewellery to the war effort and received iron jewellery in exchange.
Bezel: The metal rim that holds a stone, a miniature or the glass of a locket in place. A setting where a continuous rim is pressed over the edge of the stone is called a rub-over or bezel setting.
Bloomed gold: Gold given a soft, matt, slightly granular surface by treating it with acid, which removes base metal from the surface. Fashionable in mid-Victorian jewellery.
Bog oak: Ancient wood preserved and blackened in Irish peat bogs, carved into inexpensive souvenir and mourning jewellery in the 19th century.
Box clasp: A clasp in which a sprung metal tongue slides into a box-shaped housing until it clicks into place. Common on necklaces and bracelets from the 19th century onward.
Brilliant cut: A cut with many triangular and kite-shaped facets designed to return as much light as possible. Earlier forms include the old mine and old European cuts; the modern round brilliant was refined in the early 20th century.
Britannia standard: A silver standard of 95.8% purity, higher than sterling. Compulsory in England from 1697 to 1720 and optional ever since; marked with a figure of Britannia.

C

C-catch: A simple C-shaped hook that holds a brooch pin without locking it. Standard on brooches until safety catches spread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Cabochon: A stone shaped and polished with a smooth, domed top and no facets. Usual for opaque and translucent stones such as turquoise, moonstone and garnet.
Calibré: Small coloured stones cut to fit exactly into a shaped setting, edge to edge, so that they form a continuous line or panel of colour. Typical of Art Deco jewellery.
Cameo: A carving in relief, with the design raised above the background - often in layered shell or hardstone so that figure and ground are different colours.
Cannetille: Goldwork made from fine coiled and twisted wire worked into rosettes, scrolls and spirals, fashionable from about 1815 to 1840. Named after a type of embroidery thread.
Carat: For gold, a measure of purity in twenty-fourths: 18 carat gold is 18/24 pure gold. For gemstones, a unit of weight equal to 0.2 grams - a different meaning under the same name.
Casting: Making a metal form by pouring molten metal into a mould.
Champlevé: Enamelling in which hollows are cut, etched or stamped into a metal surface and filled with enamel, leaving raised metal between the colours.
Chasing: Decorating metal from the front with hammers and blunt punches, which move the metal into a pattern without removing any.
Chatelaine: An ornamental hook or clasp worn at the waist, hung with chains carrying small useful objects such as keys, scissors, seals, a watch or a needle case.
Choker: A necklace that fits closely around the neck. Especially fashionable in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, when wide versions were called dog collars.
Claw setting: A setting in which a stone is held by metal prongs, or claws, leaving most of it open to the light.
Cloisonné: Enamelling in which thin metal wires or strips (cloisons) are fixed to a surface to form cells, each filled with a colour of enamel.
Collet: A band of metal that encloses a stone. In Georgian jewellery collets were usually closed at the back, often with a coloured or silvered foil behind the stone.
Coronet: A small crown. In Britain the word refers specifically to the crowns of rank worn by peers, and more loosely to a small, crown-like head ornament.
Costume jewellery: Jewellery made from inexpensive materials - base metal, glass, plastics, imitation pearls - and worn for fashion rather than value. The term dates from the early 20th century.
Cut steel: Jewellery made of small faceted steel studs riveted to a backplate so that they sparkle like diamonds. Made in England from the 18th century, notably by Matthew Boulton in Birmingham.

D

Date letter: The letter in a hallmark that shows the year of assay. It changes annually, running through the alphabet in cycles, each cycle in a different typeface or shield.
Demi-parure: A matching set of two or three pieces of jewellery - for example a brooch and a pair of earrings - smaller than a full parure.
Diadem: A jewelled band or crown-like ornament for the head. Historically a symbol of sovereignty; now often used loosely as a synonym for tiara.
Duty mark: The sovereign's head in profile, struck in British hallmarks between 1784 and 1890 to show that tax on the item had been paid.

E

En tremblant: Parts of a jewel - usually flowers or insects - mounted on fine coiled springs so that they tremble as the wearer moves. Popular in 18th- and 19th-century diamond jewellery.
Engraving: Cutting lines into metal with a sharp tool called a graver, removing metal to create a design.
Eternity ring: A band set with a continuous row of matching stones, either all the way round (full eternity) or across the front only (half eternity or half-hoop). Half-hoops were popular from the Victorian period; full bands from the 1920s.

F

Fede ring: A ring showing two clasped right hands, a symbol of faith and betrothal used since Roman times. From the Italian mani in fede, 'hands in trust'.
Festoon: A necklace design of swags of chain, gems or links hanging in curves between fixed points.
Filigree: Openwork or applied decoration made from fine twisted wire, soldered into patterns.
Foiled stone: A stone backed with a thin sheet of coloured or silvered metal foil inside a closed setting, to improve its colour or brilliance. Standard practice in the 18th century and into the early 19th.
French jet: Black glass made to imitate jet, widely used in Victorian mourning jewellery. It is heavier, colder to the touch and more brittle than real jet.

G

Gilt: Base metal or silver covered with a thin layer of gold.
Gimmel ring: A ring made of two or three interlocking hoops that fit together to look like one. Used as a betrothal and wedding ring, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Girandole: An earring or brooch design with three pear-shaped drops hanging from a central element, usually a bow or cluster. Fashionable in the 18th century.
Granulation: Decoration made of tiny gold spheres fused to a gold surface. An ancient technique revived in the 19th century by the Castellani family and others.
Guilloché: Fine repeating patterns of lines cut into metal on an engine-turning lathe, often covered with translucent enamel so the pattern shows through.

H

Hallmark: Official marks struck on gold, silver or platinum after it has been tested by an independent assay office.
Hatpin: A long decorative pin used to secure a hat to the hair, especially fashionable from about 1880 to 1920.

I

Intaglio: A design cut into the surface of a stone or metal, so that it lies below the background - the reverse of a cameo. Used for seals, because it leaves a raised impression in wax.

J

Jet: A black organic gemstone formed from fossilised wood. Light and warm to the touch, it was the most prized material for Victorian mourning jewellery.

K

Keeper ring: A ring worn above another, usually a wedding ring, to stop it slipping off.

L

Lavalier: A necklace with a pendant or drop hanging from a fine chain, popular in the Edwardian period. Also spelt lavallière.
Lion passant: The walking lion that has marked English sterling silver since 1544, and 22 carat gold until 1844.
Lover's eye: A miniature painting of a single eye set in a brooch, ring or pendant. Fashionable in Britain from about 1785 to 1830.

M

Maker's mark: The part of a hallmark identifying who submitted the piece for testing - usually initials in a shaped shield. Officially called the sponsor's mark since 1973.
Marcasite: In jewellery, small faceted pieces of pyrite set in silver to give a glittering, inexpensive effect. Used from the 18th century and especially popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
Memento mori: Latin for 'remember you must die': jewellery with skulls, skeletons, coffins or hourglasses, intended as a reminder of mortality.
Micromosaic: Pictures made from tiny pieces of coloured glass, set into brooches, pendants and bracelets. A Roman speciality from the late 18th century.
Milgrain: A border of tiny beads raised along a metal edge with a knurled wheel. Characteristic of Edwardian platinum jewellery.
Mizpah: A Hebrew word from Genesis 31:49 - 'The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another' - inscribed on late Victorian sentimental jewellery.

N

Negligee necklace: An Edwardian necklace with two pendant drops of unequal length hanging from a fine chain.
Niello: A black mixture of metal sulphides inlaid into engraved lines on silver or gold, giving a black-on-metal design.

O

Old European cut: A round early brilliant cut with a small table, a high crown and a visible culet. Common from about 1890 to 1930.
Old mine cut: An early cushion-shaped brilliant cut with a high crown, small table and large culet. Common in 18th- and 19th-century diamond jewellery.

P

Parure: A full matching set of jewellery, typically a necklace, earrings, brooch and bracelet, sometimes with a tiara or comb. Smaller sets are called demi-parures.
Paste: Lead glass cut and polished to imitate gemstones, especially diamonds. Its finest period was 18th-century France and England.
Pavé: Small stones set close together like paving, held by tiny beads of metal raised from the surrounding surface.
Penannular brooch: A ring-shaped brooch with a gap in the ring, through which a long pin passes. An early medieval Irish and Scottish form revived in 19th-century Celtic jewellery.
Piercing: Cutting openwork patterns through sheet metal with a fine saw.
Pietra dura: Inlay of shaped pieces of coloured hardstone fitted together to form a picture, a speciality of Florence.
Pinchbeck: A copper and zinc alloy that imitates gold, invented by the London watchmaker Christopher Pinchbeck in the early 18th century.
Plique-à-jour: Translucent enamel held in open cells with no metal backing, so that light passes through it like stained glass. Used notably in Art Nouveau jewellery.
Posy ring: A ring inscribed with a short motto or verse - a 'posy' - usually on the inside of the band. Common in England from the 16th to the 18th century.

R

Regard ring: An acrostic ring whose stones - ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby, diamond - spell REGARD.
Repoussé: Raising a design in relief by hammering metal from the back.
Rivière: A necklace of a single row of individually set stones, usually graduated in size. French for 'river'.
Rolled gold: A layer of gold fused to a base-metal core and rolled into sheet or wire. Called gold-filled in the United States, and much thicker than gilding.
Rose cut: A cut with a flat base and a dome of triangular facets rising to a point. The main diamond cut before the brilliant, and common in Georgian jewellery.

S

Safety catch: A brooch catch with a rotating or sliding lock that closes over the pin. Locking catches appeared in the late 19th century, and the rotating safety catch still used today became common from about the 1910s, so its presence is a useful dating clue.
Sautoir: A very long necklace or chain, often ending in a tassel or pendant, fashionable in the 1910s and 1920s.
Scarab: A carved beetle, the ancient Egyptian symbol of rebirth, mounted in rings, brooches and pendants in Egyptian revival jewellery of the 1860s and 1920s.
Seed pearl: A very small natural pearl, usually under 2 mm across, used in quantity - threaded, sewn or set - especially in Georgian and Victorian jewellery.
Signet ring: A ring with a flat bezel engraved with a crest, initials or device, originally used to seal documents in wax.
Sterling silver: Silver of 92.5% purity, usually alloyed with copper - the legal standard in England since 1300.
Stickpin: A long pin with a decorative head, worn in a cravat or tie. Also called a tie pin or cravat pin.
Stomacher: A large jewelled ornament worn on the front of the bodice, especially in the 18th century. Originally the name of the fabric panel it decorated.

T

Tiara: A jewelled ornament worn on the head, usually semicircular and open at the back, associated with formal evening dress.
Topaz: A hard gemstone, prized in Georgian jewellery in golden, sherry and pink shades. Much 'topaz' in older jewellery is actually citrine, which was often sold under the name.
Torque: A rigid, open-ended ring worn around the neck - an ancient form revived in jewellery of the 19th and 20th centuries. Also spelt torc.

V

Vulcanite: A hard black rubber made by heating rubber with sulphur, used from the 1850s as an inexpensive substitute for jet in mourning jewellery.

W

Whitby jet: Jet from the Yorkshire coast around Whitby, the most highly regarded source, carved there into mourning jewellery on a huge scale in the mid-19th century.