Arts & Crafts jewelry exemplified the romanticism of the Arts & Crafts revival, adopting the traditions of the movement in its love of detail, craftsmanship, and the importance placed on use and design. British designer and architect Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942), a fellow of Arts & Crafts founders John Ruskin and William Morris, was a pivotal figure in this new form of jewelry, influencing a whole generation and establishing the principles that would survive way beyond his lifetime.
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Ashbee rebelled against what he considered to be the ‘vulgar and tawdry, showy or mean’ jewelry worn by his contemporaries. He sought to design pieces that went beyond the commercial aspect to be works of art in their own right. On the fashions of the late 19th century, he wrote: 'We nowadays have lost all understanding of the color of jewelry. We use certain conventional stones, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, white pearls, the stones that are in the market, and we set them uniformly in gold as the most expensive of metals; the rest are 'fancy stones', and don't concern us. To the Cinquecento jewelry, no stones were fancy stones...'
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By 1900 Ashbee had created a new form of fresh and informal jewelry, as could have been viewed in The Studio, Art Journal and Dekorative Kunst. It was simple and natural in form, adaptable and relatively cheap in comparison with what had gone before, and he reveled in using colored stones of all forms. The principles and tastes that Ashbee established became an important benchmark for all other Arts and Crafts jewelers, with others adopting his values to create a whole range of Arts & Crafts styles. His designs rested on 5 main principles:
1. The importance of metalwork
Silver became the metal of choice for most Arts & Crafts jewelry, as it was no-where near as costly as gold, which would more likely be found as a trim. Silver was softer, as were other metals such as copper, brass and aluminium favored by Arts & Crafts designers, making it easier to use and allowing designers to bend and conjoin wirework, set stones or enamel more easily to create more elaborate and intricate designs. Furthermore, if it all went wrong, it was not as costly!
2. The choice of stones
Gemstones were chosen for their aesthetic rather than their monetary value, their color and hue playing a decisive role. Generally stones would be left en cabochon (un-faceted) with simple settings, and similarly pearls were chosen that were not purely formed or of the usual creamy color. This allowed for the jewelry to be more affordable, as well as giving the craftsmen greater freedom, aesthetically allowing them to make the design of the utmost importance rather than spotlighting a single gemstone.
3. The art of enamelling
A Renaissance practice, enamelling came back into fashion in the Arts & Crafts period and became one of the central and foremost features of the jewelry of this period. It could take a number of forms – champlevé, cloisonné, limoges and slightly less often plique-a-jour, producing vibrant colors that craftsmen could work with and playoff against each other.
4. The consideration of cost
Rather than just appealing to those at the very height of society with the greatest wealth, Arts & Crafts jewelry allowed those with more moderate means to buy pieces. This also meant that the jewelry became closely associated with the women's suffrage movement and it was known that Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette leader, supported Arts & Crafts jewelry.
5. The jewelry as art
Ashbee treasured the pure design element of each piece – the 'art' was of the utmost important and the visibility of the hand of the craftsman critical. The peacock and the galleon were both favorite motifs of Ashbee that harked back to the Medieval and Renaissance periods, and they became themes that reoccurred frequently in Arts & Crafts metalwork and jewelry, epitomizing the revival of a pure art form.
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Finally, it was jewelry to be worn with the new free-flowing style of dress – brooches, pendants, clasps, bracelets and buckles – romantic and full of symbolism. Ashbee and his principles of Arts & Crafts jewelry were influential both within the national movement and internationally (the American Arts & Crafts Movement, Scandinavian Design and the Austrian Secession including the Wiener Werkstatte all took inspiration from him) and it laid the foundations for the modern crafts movement.
Today, the designs of Ashbee and his fellows go at auction for not-so-modest prices, with an Arts & Crafts plique-a-jour enamel and gem-set brooch by the British designer selling for $165,500. Most of Arts & Crafts jewelry, however, thanks to its choice of common stones, still keeps prices relatively low for these pieces of the highest craftsmanship and creativity.
