Emotion made Precious

OBVIOUS & UNEXPECTED INSPIRATION IN JEWELRY SERIES - CHAPTER 6 : EMOTIONS

Welcome to the sixth chapter of our series Obvious and Unexpected Inspiration in Jewelry Design, our in depth we exploration of the poetic undercurrents behind what glitters.

Today’s theme? Emotion, not in the grand, operatic sense, but the quieter kind: the heartbeats, the tears, the ties. In the hands of great jewelers, feelings become form, and sentiment gets cast in gold

EMOTIONS ENCODED

A Very Short story

Long before emojis, precious stones, hairs and knots adorned fingers and brooches to say what couldn’t be said out lout. The practice of encoding feeling into jewelry reaches back to antiquity, but it was during the Georgian era (1714–1830) that sentimental design truly flourished in Europe.

One of the most enduring tokens was "the lover’s knot ring" made of two intertwined bands of gold or plaited hair (yes, hair), often inscribed with mottos like “United in love” or “Forget me not.”

Hair jewelry, may sound morbid to modern ears but it was seen as the ultimate act of closeness in the 18th and 19th centuries. A locket with a beloved’s braid or a ring lined with their hair was literally keeping someone close. Queen Victoria herself wore a mourning ring containing Prince Albert’s hair after his death in 1861.

By the Victorian era (1837–1901), jewelers added even more nuance with acrostic jewelry: pieces that spelled out secret messages using the first letter of each gemstone.
REGARD = Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond
DEAREST = Diamond, Emerald, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Topaz
Maison Chaumet was among the renowned maisons to incorporate these codes in early 19th-century pieces and the “Acrostiches” collection is still available to this day

LOVE : HEARTS & WORDS

Timeless Romance

The iconic heart shape has a very mysterious history, no one can exactly pinpoint it’s origine but we can afirm it is more symbolic than anatomical and became widespread in jewlery from the 15th century.
Today, few symbols are more emotionally direct than the heart but designers have found countless ways to reinterpret it.

Elsa Peretti’s Open Heart

Designed for Tiffany & co in the 70’s. , more silhouette than symbol it suggests openness to love , others and life itself

Paloma Picasso’s Loving Heart

Designed for Tiffany & co in the 80’s , offers a more graphic and sensual approach. A stroke of gold that becomes an emblem.

Mikimoto’s Love Collection

A handwritten love entwining a signature Akoya pearl, itself a symbol of purity and emotional depth. A perfect blend of classic design & symbolism

Dior’s Diorama Collection

A very literal symbol to convey the ultimate love expression , to shout your

Or creating iconic heartless hearts ...

The Cartier Love bracelet : no hearts here, just a bold band, “locked” with a screwdriver, worn by one lover for the other. More than jewellery it’s a ritual, designed by Aldo Cipullo in the 70s. A declaration of commitment, designed to never come off.

Five decades later, the love collection represents more than a third of all jewellery sales for Cartier, but the symbol has transformed; 60% of buyers are purchasing it for themselves. First and foremost , the Love collection now embodies Love for one’s self and success.
From Possession and commitment to self empowerment and gratification , the love collection is still a token of great emotion, managing to stay relevant thanks to new buyers not afraid to rewrite a piece’s history while empowering themselves.