Antique Swedish Arts and Craft topaz earings, gold, silver rubies and diamond. Made circa 1900.
Each composed with a row of square links set with a carrécut ruby alternating with rose cut diamonds, finishing with a briolette cut blue topaz. The topaz is estimated to be approx. 10ct / each.
The earrings have been converted from screw back to post fittings. The original screw are preserved and comes with the earrings. They are marked 18K and makers mark for Gustaf Dahlgren, a firm established in Malmö, Sweden 1845.
Approx: 56 mm long
Gross weight approx 14.1 grams.
Out from the veil of Victorian mourning jewelry come something new – color and sinuous design that would forever alter our understanding of pleasing design and moving beauty.
The Arts and Crafts movement, an English aesthetic movement of the second half of the 19th century represented the beginning of a new appreciation of the decorative arts throughout Europe. Dedicated to recapturing the spirit and quality of medieval craftsmanship. The movement marked the beginning of a change in the value society placed on how things were made. This was a reaction to not only the damaging effects of industrialisation but also the relatively low status of the decorative arts. Arts and Crafts reformed the design and manufacture of everything from buildings to jewelry. Structured more by a set of ideals than a prescriptive style. Passionate about the importance of creating beautiful, well-made objects that could be used in everyday life, and that were produced in a way that allowed their makers to remain connected both with their product and with other people. It was an aesthetic protest against design that developed as marketable commodity in mass urban and industrialized society. It stood for traditional craftsmanship, and often used medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was anti-industrial in its orientation. In Europe the honesty of expression in Arts and Crafts work was a catalyst for the radical forms of Modernism. The movement flourished in Europe and North America between about 1880 and 1920.
Very few Arts and Crafts earrings were produced at least in part because earrings were not prominently in vogue at the time.