Jewellery

Transcriber's Note: Page 91 contains a footnote, however there is no associated marker. The footnote has been left in place, with a note to this effect.
BY H. CLIFFORD SMITH, M.A.
NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS LONDON: METHUEN & CO. 1908

PLATE I
sixteenth-century pendent jewels of enamelled gold


B. M. = British Museum. V. and A. M. = Victoria and Albert Museum.
A page-number appended to a description indicates place of reference in the text.

THE term Jewellery is used generally in a very wide sense, and it has been necessary to impose certain limitations upon its meaning for the purpose of the present work. Jewellery may be defined as comprising various objects adapted to personal ornament, precious in themselves or rendered precious by their workmanship. The jewel worn as a personal ornament may be merely decorative, such as the aigrette or the pendant, or it may be useful as well as ornamental, such as the brooch or the girdle. Gems and precious stones are not jewels, in the present sense, until the jeweller's skill has wrought and set them. This definition will be found to correspond with the term minuteria adopted by Italian writers on the goldsmith's art for objects in precious materials employed for the adornment of the person, as distinct from grosseria —those fashioned for household use or ornament.