Clipped Fragment with a Design for a Jeweled Aigrette
Friedrich Jacob Morisson German
Not on view
Clipped fragment with an etching of a design for an aigrette, possibly created by Friedrich Jacob Morrison, a German jewelry designer active from 1693 to 1697. His designs ranged from ornamental religious subjects to jeweled sword hilts and fans, and included different types of jewelry. Receiving their name from the white egrett, aigrettes were brooches with a feather-llike shape, often worn as hair ornaments, which were fashionable throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The design consists of an undulating branch with offsetting scrolls and thin, stylized, scrolling leaves, decorated with oval and round, faceted stones of different sizes and shades of gray. This kind of etching was produced to be collected by jewelers to use in the design process of their own creations.