In the late 18th, the art of tying a cravat became an important requisite for men of breeding and an expression of their social standing.
The jeweler used coloured stones, carved coral and ivory, enamel and gold to depict animals, heads and flowers as well as the more conventional plain shapes. Cameos and intaglios became extremely popular with the revived interest in the ancients, and usually featured classical heads. This revived interest went hand in hand with the " The Grand Tour" .
As transport became more advanced it became easier to travel and the gentleman and lady of leisure visited the sights of Europe and bought back souvenirs. Apart from cameos and intaglios, they also found micro-mosaics which were particularly suitable for stickpins.
A popular motif at this time, keeping in mind the previous epoch and the Victorian "cult" of the serpent, due to Queen Victoria's snake engagement ring, the head of which was set with Queen Victoria's birthstone, the emerald, was the snake which was often coiled around a stone or another object and was formed from plain gold or enamel and gold.
By the 1860's with the rapid spread of wealth the demand for jeweler of all kinds was expanding. This allowed jewellers to experiment not only with new techniques but also with new designs. Domestic objects, animals, human heads of all races , wild conjunctions of the human and the animal were used and the jewellers who made stickpins seemed to let their fantasies run wild in these tiny works of art , in a way that they could not (for obvious reasons) in larger pieces of jewelry.
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Resource: Fine Period Jewels http://www.fineperiodjewels.com/catalogue.php?type=stickpins
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Stick Pin Info - from the 18th c to the late 19th c by: Anonymous
Hi Greg - thanks for writing in.. stickpins are a fascinating subject for study and more importantly wonderful objects to collect and to wear. They are a very personal form of adornment and reflect in a subtle way the personality and taste of the wearer.
As a general rule, the newer they are the worse the quality.
The wearing of stickpins began as a practical method of securing the voluminous neckwear, that was worn, both as a practical way of keeping warm and protecting the shirt from the debris of careless eaters, but also as part of the fine feathers of the strutting gentlemen peacocks of the eighteenth century.
The period from the late eighteenth century, when the wearing of stickpins became fashionable, to the beginning of the twentieth century was a period of great change and also of an enormous spread of wealth.
It was a wonderful time for the jeweler, who was able to experiment with new techniques and create new designs. Stickpins reflect all these developments in the jewellers art; in miniature.
The first stickpins were simple and consisted of clusters of stones or single stones or plain gold; sometimes two were worn linked together by chain. By the early nineteenth century jewellers were producing more daring designs and found a willing canvas for their jewels on the cravats and stocks of the young dandies of the Regency era....
The motif on the stick pin often provides a dating clue; are you sure they are vintage and not antique stick pins? There were a number of UK maker's marks - "Hall" in the 19th century. A photo of the name would help with our research.
If you would like us to research this mark further you might like to send in a photo of the stickpin in question, and a close-up of the jewelry mark in a follow-up submission.
Please type "H and G Wall" in the "name your question" box.
