Monday, September 08, 2008

Home > Goettgen's virtual jewellery museum

Antique style jewellery – beautiful jewellery from past times

Over the decades, we have collected a small treasure: Pictures and sketches of jewellery from past times – jewellery that, for example, Empress Sissi used to wear.
Note: Images temporarily not available!

The epochs

The following links contain
text and pictures about the most interesting epochs :

• Romanticism and Biedermeier (1790 to 1848)
• Historicism, Empire, Wilhelminian Style (1850 to 1900)
• Art Nouveau (1895 to 1925)
• Art Deco (1925 to 1940)

Epochs that overlap have been combined.

Chronological overview and continuative information

Renaissance 1420 bis 1590:

French for "rebirth“, cultural-historical term for culture and art at the beginning of Modern Times, especially in Italy. Archetype was the rediscovered art and culture of the classical antique. Breakthrough around 1420 in Florence. >Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rafael around 1520 - 1533 Late Renaissance. In Germany from around 1500.

Baroque 1580 to 1760:

The roots of baroque style lie in Rome, the historical roots in counter reformation and absolutism. The arrangement of columns was kept, but silence was replaced by movement, and classic beauty by the expression force, pathos, ecstasy.

Rococo 1720 to 1780:

Late era of Baroque, mainly a decoration style with asymmetric treatment of ornaments, ductile forms, naturalistic plant motifs as well as East Asian elements (Chinoiserie). Late era of Baroque, break-up of the great dualistic form in favour of playful, delicate detailed art.

Classicism 1770 to 1830:

In the fine arts following rococo, in France Louise XVI and Empire. Reminiscence of the Roman interpretation of Greek Antiquity.

Biedermeier 1815 to 1848:

The epoch after classicism. Typical for the period: Naivety, peacefulness, middle-class lifestyle. Most distinctive in furniture art; very plain; painting as description of middle-class life. Typical representative: Spitzweg, Waldmueller amongst others

Wilhelminian Style 1871 to 1873:

Reparations from France led to numerous speculative company formations in Germany.

Art Nouveau 1895 to 1925:

This style of European art, named after a journal which has been published in Munich since 1896, appeared simultaneously in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Belgium, France (Art nouveau) Austria (Vienna secession style) as a reaction to the historicism of the 19th century ; its completely new linear ornaments with elements of nature dominated all arts.

Art Deco 1925 to 1940:

Short for the French "art decoratif". Term for an art style. Characteristic means of design are geometric forms. In terms of art history, it follows Art Nouveau.

About this project

The main purpose of this jewellery museum is to show that the term antique style jewellery has many different roots.

There are many connoisseurs of antique style jewellery, but often, even among the pros, the opinions differ on this matter. We want to provide at least an overview of the most important epochs and their jewellery style for jewellery enthusiasts.

However, we are not able to guarantee correctness and completeness, even though we have been dealing with this subject for decades.

We need your support!

We want this project to grow like a child. Therefore, we ask you as an interested expert to support this project. Send us your ideas, texts, or interesting pictures. . If we happen to be wrong with a point, we will be pleased to be corrected – the main thing is that it be of general interest – and there is an ever increasing interest in antique style jewellery at present.

Whether you are a fan of antique style jewellery or an antique dealer, we all have one thing in common: we want to be individual, we love jewellery that has not been industrially produced in bulk.

Enough philosophised, now let’s enjoy our little time travel...