Art Nouveau, an excellent jewelry style

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Everywhere around me, you see that Art Nouveau jewelry is so popular. And not only because people pay a fortune at Sotheby’s and Christie’s to get one excellent piece of Art Nouveau jewelry.

But why is this jewelry so popular? Why do people pay a lot to obtain a genuine piece in this style? And why is there a stunning exhibition in one of the most prominent museums in Amsterdam/The Netherlands about this jewelry style?

Altogether, there are fine reasons to talk about Art Nouveau jewelry a bit more. And maybe after reading this blog, you agree with me that you can say: Art Nouveau, is 1 excellent jewelry style!

What is Art Nouveau?

Art Nouveau is an art movement that flourished between 1890 and 1914. It was a reaction to the art style of impressionism, where all the shapes in art faded, and you did not know what you were looking at.

The start of Art Nouveau was in England, the center of the Industrial Revolution and mass production. It is called the Arts&Crafts Movement there. It spread to France (Art Nouveau), Germany (Jugendstil), and the rest of Europe.

Artists and with them, a lot of people did not like the industrial products and especially the design of those products. All individuality was gone and art was not unique anymore. It was more a cheap mass-productive way of making objects.

The most important inspiration was nature, an optimistic worldview, and a belief in a great future. Artists loved to experiment with new techniques and disliked symmetry. This art style manifested itself in glasswork, architecture, furniture, book designs, painting, etc, and also in designing jewelry.

How did Art Nouveau originate?

Around 1950, the age of the Industrial Revolution in England, people valued everything made with machines. No more handwork, no more hard labor (they thought), machines did all the work. People earned a lot because the products got cheaper, and they longed for objects that the rich folks owned.

The result was that there was no real design anymore, but one copied the designs of earlier times. The products were made fast to meet the demand, and those products were made sloppy and with mistakes. Some artists resented all this and started to make new products, with new designs made by hand, watching and controlling the whole process. This movement was called the Arts&Crafts Movement.

Mr. William Morris was the most famous man who came up against industrial production. He did not want a new style, but a new design principle: nice and decent objects for common people. That did not work, since the new products were too expensive, but the movement got noticed by Tiffany in the USA and designers in the rest of Europe.

Art Nouveau and jewelry

Before 1890 jewelry was made for the show, large and expensive, using a lot of precious stones, like diamonds. It was not important whether the jewelry was beautiful and how it made the woman look stunning. No, it had to be expensive and you had to see that.

In the time of Art Nouveau for the first in a long period, jewelry is designed as art objects. That had to make the ladies beautiful and seen. Jewelry designers like René Lalique and George Fouquet created original and artistic pieces of jewelry that stunned the world.

In their jewelry, they loved ornaments, like flowers, birds, and ladies. No mass production, but handmade jewelry using unusual materials and techniques. And the idea was to make this jewelry for ‘normal’ people, not for the rich and famous.

How did jewelry look like before Art Nouveau?

The Art Nouveau jewelry designers resented the ‘old’ jewelry that just seemed to be made to look exclusive and expensive. The most expensive gemstones, all faceted, were in the middle of the design attention. Only gold and silver were used as precious metals and their ‘task’ was to show the gemstones as stunning as possible.

In the 1860s diamonds were found in South Africa and the result was that only diamonds were used in the jewelry of the 19th century. That expensive jewelry was called ‘joaillerie’ and was purchased by the rich. Jewelry for the less fortunate people, made from cheaper materials, was called ‘bijouterie’ and not worth looking at according to the rich people.

In this system, jewelry designers worked for large companies, like Cartier, and nobody knew their names. Luckily, due to the fast production of jewelry in the 1950s, the jewelry was tacky, and all the mistakes made were covered by a lot of ornaments.

In the 1890s the longing for artists professional jewelry designers and jewelry makers started.

Now what?

Well, to start with… from the beginning of Art Nouveau the pieces of jewelry, made by hand, were expensive. They were unique and exclusive and made with a combination of expensive gemstones and cheap materials, like horn or enamel. But you needed a lot of skills to master the enameling, and a lot of the experiments failed. So the idea of making cheap but beautiful jewelry failed (the cheap part, I mean).

The jewelry was based on asymmetrical lines, that expressed emotions. The design was the most important factor and not the material, like before. The jewelry designers always found materials that made the design work, also when they had to work with very unusual materials, like enamel and horn. The faceted gemstones were only used to match the colors of the design and diamonds were not used as a focus-point, but a touch of light.

The pieces of jewelry have a design based on nature. Gracefully styled plants and flowers with long stems, like lilies, chalices, irises, poppies, or rosebuds. Also, birds are favorite especially swans and peacocks, but also dragonflies, clouds, and slim female figures.

Designers like René Lalique and George Fouquet, Henry Vever in France, Louis Comfort Tiffany in the USA, and others stood up and changed the jewelry world, once and for all!

Nature as inspiration for new jewelry

Art Nouveau jewelry is one amazing explosion of birds, insects, clouds, and water. Some elements return in the jewelry designs and a great thing is that the jewelry designers break with every rule concerning the use of gemstones, expensive gemstones! Their design was more important than the price of the gems.

It did not last!

Art Nouveau jewelry was very popular and the rich people could afford it. Actresses, like Sarah Bernhard, promoted the pieces of jewelry of René Lalique in theatre and that meant an extra boost in sales. But when something is popular the copy-cats come up and in no time cheap and not that beautiful copies start to overflow the market.

In 1914 World War I started and people were not that interested anymore in purchasing and making jewelry. Surviving was the most important thing in those days. And although the Art Nouveau style was very different and intense, and had a lot of influence on art and designing utensils, it ended as fast as it started.

Expensive Art Nouveau jewelry, even today!

You might think. OK, beautiful jewelry, but made only about 20 years ago. And not with the most expensive materials. Why is this jewelry so extremely expensive?

There is a very easy explanation for this. Art Nouveau jewelry is rare, due to the short period it is made and because it is mostly made of enamel, which breaks quite easily. Genuine, good-quality Art Nouveau jewelry is very hard to find. And when it is designed and made by a famous jewelry designer, like Lalique or Fouquet or Tiffany, then the price goes up and up.

Just calculate for a pendant or brooch, made by René Lalique, in good condition between $200.000-300.000. It does not come into the million dollars, but maybe when you wait too long?

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