Art Nouveau Jewelry

The art nouveau period commenced around 1890 and ended around 1919. It represented the onset of the modern age, when people celebrated the female form as well as soft curves, pale colors, and sinuous lines.

Jewelry design during the art nouveau period was unrestrained in terms of innovation. This period signifies artists creating jewelry and art for art’s sake, a time when free flowing, asymmetrical design was in vogue.

Artists embellished jewelry with nature designs like orchids, butterflies, snakes, dragonflies, and water lilies. Plique a'jour, a popular type of enameling, gives art nouveau jewelry a distinctive, three-dimensional appearance. A tedious task, the enameling brought the jeweler’s artistry to the foreground.

During this period, jewelry deign, not materials was the focus. Various gemstones like moonstones, amber, opals, peridot, and citrines were immensely popular. Art nouveau jewelry often included other unique materials such as tortoise shell, horn, ivory, copper, carved glass, pearls, shells, and cabochon-cut gemstones.