When the jewel was first chosen, although the design was doubtless appropriate to the times, the basic consideration was the beauty of the gems, their intrinsic value, and what they could do to beautify the woman for whom they were selected. These things have not changed. Nor has the woman’s love for them, nor—we have assumed—her love for the donor. But the brightness of the design has faded. Remodelling with a fresh design will put a new jewel in the ear and a new sparkle in the eye. The old sentiment will be refurbished, the old love will gleam anew.
The Contemporary Jewels
It is surprising how, though the stones themselves remain unchanged, remodelling can create an entirely new jewel. Many an old-fashioned piece now in a safety vault, sheltered from all but the dust of time, can be given a beautiful modern setting and restored to an active place in one’s evenings. Modern design not only can give the precious stones a new styling, but can bring out their beauty as it never shone before.
Even the solitaire diamond, simplest of jewels and seemingly most constant in fashion, can be given a helpful face-lifting. Higher settings have been devised which permit the light to radiate more fully from all angles of the facet surfaces. The powers of reflection of which we know more now than in former years are thus used in additional interplays of light.
Modern Movement
A piece of jewelry made some years ago is likely to be symmetrical. This type of design contains a quiet beauty. The great classical statues are symmetrical; that is, if a vertical line is drawn down from the middle of the forehead, the body will be equally distributed on each side; an arm thrust forward is balanced by a leg held back. Thus all is in equipoise, calm and quiet.
But the modern figure in marble, bronze or other material, by some subtle shifting of the balance will be out of equilibrium. The sculptor Rodin has a great figure of John the Baptist, taking a giant stride—with both feet flat on the ground. This, some may exclaim, is an anatomical impossibility. Precisely! In Rodin’s statue, as the eye flicks from one foot to the other, the figure has taken the step! By this and other sorts of manipulation, the modern sculptor endows his figures with expectant motion.
The comparison of jewelry with sculpture is especially apt, for the three-dimensional jewelry of today presents a challenge to the sculptor. Some of the great sculptors of all times have worked with the precious metals; some of the jewel designers have had training with sculptors’ materials and tools. I have often been gratified that I graduated from the Vienna Academy of Arts and Crafts as a sculptor, and many of my jewels I consider examples of the sculptor’s art.
It is, then, fair to say that the jewelry of our grandmothers was conceived somewhat as a mid-nineteenth century picture, symmetrical, flat, and often stiff, whereas the jewelry of today is built out into three dimensions. There are three keynotes of modern jewelry design: height, airiness and grace of movement. Literally as well as emotionally, a modern jewel is a moving work of art.