Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/228

* JEWELRY. 202 JEWELRY. JEWELRY. The word jewel is usually em- ployed to ileiiotc a gem which has been cut and mounted for wear or a personal ornament made of a precious metal. .lewelrj', in the modern sense, is the collective term for such articles or their imitations. The manufacture of jewels has in all times bivn a test of the artistic sUill and tasti! of a nation; tlle j,'enius of the jeweler hein^' directed to the production of the larj^esl amount ot beauty in the most limited space. The use of jewelry is as old as knowledge of the precious metiils; and in the earliest of ancient civiliza- tions, the Egyptian, the jeweler'.s art had al- ready attained high dcvel<>|)nient. There is an essential difTerence between the jewelry of ancient and of modern times. Goldsmiths depend very much upon the processes of ca.sting. drawing, stamping, and other metallurgical operations, and produce thereby great accuracy of outline and high finish. The ancients wrought by liam- mering, chasing, and repotissi^; depending entirely upon the taste and skill of the artist, instead of the perfection of his tools and mechanical ar- rangements; consequently, their works bear the stamp of artistic priMluctions, whereas modern works, however lieautiful, are usually character- ized by meclianical precision rather tlian artis- tic taste; and what they gain in nicety of finish is more than riainterbalanced by what is lost in richness of elTcct. The jewelry of the ancient Greeks shows per- fection of form and purity of ornament. The jewelry of the Romans was at once more mag- nificent and less refined. The most beautiful metal-work of ancient times, liowever, was pro- duced by the Etruscans. The Etruscan jewelers Iiroduce<I a ricli. granulated surface on their gold, never successfully imitated by modern gold- smiths. Among the great jewelers of the Renais- sance period were Bcnvennto Cellini. Albrecht Diirer. and the two .Tamnitzers. Much of the most beautiful jewelry of those days was ornamented with colored enamel. (SeeExAMEL. ) Diamonds and other gems were set flat with a l)a<king of metal, and an inlaid effect was sought in jew- elry as well as in furniture. Later, with the in- troduction of the rose diamond in the sixteenth century, a lighter and more gi'aceful manner of mounting gems and of modeling jewelr(- came into vogue. See Diamonds; Lapioary-Woek. For many years the finest jewelry was made in London and Paris, and diamonds were chiefly cut in Holland, but now American jewelers receive European commendation for their work, which rivals that of the older workers. I^arge amounts of cheap jewelry are ])roduced in both France and Germany, and also at Birmingham. England. Garnet jewelr%- is made chiefly at Prague: the so- called rococo-work at Vienna : filigree at Flor- ence ; and mosaic at Rome. .Jet and mourning jewelry conies from Whitby, England. Gold and silver filigree is made in large quantities in Ven- ice. Malta, and in the cities of Mexico. Tortoise- shell jewelri' conies from the Italian cities, chiefiy Florence. Rome, and Naples. In America, probably the very first factory was the glass-factory built at Jamestown. Va., in lfi07. to make glass beads to sell to the Indians. The wearing of jewelry was earnestly dis- countenanced in the Xew England Colonics as a practice savoring of worldly pride and ostenta- tion, and therefore hardly compatible with piety. This form of asceticism, though it had its root in religious feeling, was no doubt stimulated by the poverty of the times. (Jold beads appear to have been exempt from the prevalent proscrip- tion, being cherished as heirlooms, and transmit- ted with i)ride from mother to daughter; and as the Colonies became prosperous, it became more usual for the fortunate possessors of gold coins to hand them over to the goldsmith to be cast into rings or chains. In the Colonies south of New England the religious objection to wearing jewelry was not so much experienced, but the demand for it was limited, and most of that which was worn was imported. The jewelers of the period sometimes made plain rings and chains, but the manufacture of jewelry as a busi ness was unknown in this countrj' until some time after the War of Independence. It is be- lieved to have been first introduced into Newark, N, J., somewhere lielwcen 1790 and 17!)o. by Epaphras Hinsdale, who died in 1810, and was succeeded by Taylor, one of his workmen, who greatly enlarged tlu; business and invented new- machines for the prosecution of the work. About 1800 the business was introduced into Providence, R. I., and rapidly ext<'nded there. Hinsdale and Taylor had made all their articles of solid gold; but the Providence manufacturers soon began to make what is known as •filled work,' the face of the jewel being stamped out from a thin ribbon of gold, and the shell filled with a solder of some baser metal, and then covered on the back with a thin layer of gold of an inferior quality. In 1812 George F. Down- ing began to manufacture various articles of jewelry in Newark, and in 1821 he removed to New York, where the manufacture of filigree jewelry had been introduced in 1812 by a French iiiaji named La Guerre. From this time onward the business rajjidly increased, until it met a check in the financial panic of 18.'!7. With the return of national prosperity it revived, and was immensely increased by the discovery of gold in California. Tt met w ith another check in the dis- asters of 18.57, and had hardly recovered when the Civil 'ar gave it another blow. With more prosperous times the industry not only revived, but immensely expanded. Diamonds, which be- fore that time had been rarely worn, were in great demand, and the setting of them, previously confined to Europe, became a recognized branch of the jewelry manufacture in the t'nited States. Imitation jewelry was also extensively manu- facture*! to meet the wants of the poorer classes, who were infected by the fa.shion of the time. The trade in this spurious stuff was immense, yielding substantial profits to those engaged in it. The annual production of jewelry in this count.rv in 18.50 was estimated at a little less than .$2,000,000. In ISCO the numlier of estab- lishments bad increased to 40.1, <'mploying a capital of more than .$.5,000,000. giving employ- ment to about fiOOO persons, paying wages to the amount of .$2,000,000. and producing annually goods valued at about .*10,.500.000. The produc- tion of hair jewelry was a separate branch of business, and the goods annually produced amounted to somewhat less than .$1.5.000. Lapi- daries' work, which was carried on in 7 estab- lishments, was valued at about $37,000 yearly. In 1800 the number of establishments was 783, employing over 15.000 persons, using capital amounting to about $22,240,000, paying wages to the amount of nearly $10,300,000, and produc-