Lithograph with designs for jewelry printed with metallic gold ink

Lithograph with designs for nineteenth-century jewels, possibly a plate meant to form part of an edition of the "Jewelers Circular and Horological Review," a publication established in 1869 as a trade journal dedicated to jewelry, clocks, watches, and silverware. The designs, which include a necklace, pendants, brooches, bracelets, and rings, present the aesthetic of the French Second Empire (1852-1870), which was characterized by extravagant motifs with complex compositions of naturalistic jewelry, composed of clearly recognizable foliage, flowers and fruit, and often presenting frames or roundels with female figures dressed with draped, neoclassical clothes. In many cases, the colors of gemstones used in the creation of the jewels were meant to match those in nature; cabochon gems were popular elements to create complexity in curving and figurative designs, often with symbolic meanings.

The plate contains three black ovals, each containing one design: the first for a brooch, made up of an oval frame that would have been personalized for the wearer, possibly with a monogram or a cameo, flanked above by a triangle with diamonds, to the sides by two horizontal strips with two square-cut diamonds, and below by a scale motif with two scrolling leaves on the sides, joined by a horizontal strip of two square-cut diamonds. The upper half of the frame is made up of curved strips of square-cut diamonds, and the lower part by intersecting strips of gold. A similar kind of frame, smaller and with more scrolling motifs on the bottom, makes up another design, possibly for a pendant or hook earring. The other two black ovals contain designs for pendants made up of semi-abstract shell motifs: the first executed only with gold and including scrolling motifs that would have been embossed on the manufactured jewel, and the other including also diamonds and black gemstones. A design that matches the first pendant also appears in a smaller version, possibly for an earring, next to it.

Between the three ovals is a large necklace, made up of a strip of golden rectangles with undulating X-shapes, and separated by vertical rectangles of gold, from which hangs a cross decorated with triangles. Below it is a bracelet, made up of a golden bangle decorated with a large ring in the center, containing two vertical, elongated triangles in the bottom, and flanked to the sides by strips of vertical rectangles of decreasing size. Other designs include rings with gold, diamonds, and black enamel, hook earrings with diamonds and black gemstones, and smaller frame brooches with gold, black enamel, and black gemstones.