When a €30 diamond crashes the system: rethinking jewellery’s worth

When a €30 diamond crashes the system: rethinking jewellery’s worth

by | European jewellery, Opinion

Rethinking jewellery’s worth

When a €30 diamond crashes the system

Updated October 4, 2025

Upheaval in the jewellery world! Last week, Dutch low-budget chain Zeeman released a lab-grown diamond pendant for just under 30 euros. Their claim, in a spin on De Beers’ ‘diamonds are forever’: diamonds are for everyone. This affordable, lab-grown diamond caused quite the stir: jewellery experts hastened to explain the difference between lab-grown and natural diamonds, lawsuits were filed, the Zeeman website crashed because of the number of people trying to get one of these. For me, as a jewellery historian, this is fascinating because of the underlying question: what is the value of jewellery, and who gets to decide it?

The Zeeman diamond pendant controversy

So, what is all the fuss about?

Zeeman is a Dutch, low-budget chain of stores, usually associated with cheap products and low incomes. Just to be clear: no shade to Zeeman, I used to work there as a teen to pay for my school books, and learned quite a lot there, too. It’s not, however, a store that people visit for leisurely shopping. And now, this of all stores releases an affordable diamond pendant… wait, what?

Here’s what they offered: a silver pendant set with a small, round brilliant cut diamond of about 0.10 carats, VS2 clarity, and D–F colour. The diamond is lab-grown, and the pendant was priced at €29.99. The ad was brilliant, too: starting out with sepia-hued casino luxury vibes, it then switched to behind the scenes where everyday people were seen enjoying diamonds. See it here (Dutch spoken, but the imagery says it all)

When the diamond pendant finally went online, thousands of people rushed to buy one. The website crashed under demand, and stock sold out within the hour. A budget retailer, usually associated with socks and cleaning cloths, suddenly had a runaway success with diamond jewellery – that’s in the same league as Meghan Markle’s As Ever sellouts (also: the price of two tins of As Ever flower sprinkles equals one diamond pendant – just so you get an idea).

The controversy, of course, didn’t lag far behind. A Dutch wholesaler, Gisser Jewels, filed a lawsuit against Zeeman, arguing that their advertising was misleading. Zeeman had compared its €29.99 pendant to ‘similar’ pieces sold for hundreds of euros, which competitors said was an unfair comparison. The case was settled and a rectification of the comparison statement issued.

But still, a pendant that cost less than dinner for two found itself at the heart of a very public debate on what jewellery is worth.

Are lab-grown diamonds less ‘real’ than natural diamonds?

One of the first questions raised was, of course, whether these diamonds are ‘real’. The answer is: yes, they are. Lab-grown diamonds are chemically and physically identical to those mined from the earth. They score the same on the Mohs hardness scale, have the same brilliance, and can even be graded in exactly the same way by gemmological institutes. They sparkle just as amazing in candlelight. The only difference is origin.

That difference does carry social and environmental weight. Mining has long been associated with ecological disruption and, in some regions, with labour exploitation and conflict financing. The term ‘blood diamonds’ says it all, wouldn’t you agree?

Lab-grown diamonds sidestep those issues, although they, too, come with their own footprint: the process of creating them costs insane amounts of energy. Still, many see them as a more transparent alternative, and certainly as a more affordable one.

What makes jewellery really valuable? Rethinking jewellery worth

This is where it gets interesting. Because, despite the rectification issued, much of jewellery marketing (actually, any marketing, when you think of it…) does rest on scarcity and exclusivity. Books like Aja Raden’s Stoned and documentaries like Nothing Lasts Forever peel back that history of how desire is created and maintained through careful control of supply and clever advertising. According to these sources, De Beers famously built the 20th-century diamond market on that very idea: diamonds were not inherently rare, but they were presented as such.

We tend to fall back on that way of looking at jewellery: by the worth of its materials alone. But as I wrote earlier, this is a very limited way of thinking about adornment. Jewellery is not just about price tags. It can be made of glass, shell, copper or plastic and still be ‘real’ because its value lies in meaning: in how it is worn, who gave it, what story it carries.

See that earlier blog here: what is real jewellery?

Zeeman’s diamond challenges two long-held assumptions: that diamonds are scarce, and that they must therefore be costly. If both of those are shaken, then what really gives jewellery its worth…?

When jewellery loses (or gains) value: a historical perspective

This isn’t the first time jewellery has faced a shift in how value is perceived. In the 19th century, for instance, jet and gutta-percha were introduced as substitutes for more expensive materials like onyx or tortoiseshell. They were mass-produced and affordable, and at the time, some dismissed them as cheap imitations. But today, Victorian mourning jewellery in jet is prized for its craftsmanship and historical significance – literally prized, as real jet is quite expensive.

Glass, too, has long been used in place of gemstones – sometimes to deceive, often simply to make beauty available to more people. We don’t consider Roman glass intaglios less valuable because they’re not carved in amethyst or garnet; instead, we treasure them for their artistry and survival – and because they tell us a lot about the society that produced them.

That also works the other way around; materials that were once expensive, but now so common we can’t even imagine them as anything else.

Changing jewellery value: aluminium

Take aluminium, for example. In the mid-19th century, this was considered a precious metal. I know, right…? Let that sink in for a moment.

Aluminium was difficult to extract and more valuable than gold. Gold earrings were set with tiny blobs of aluminium – a fashion-forward lady would be showing off the latest of the latest. The pair shown above (click to enlarge the image) must have been worth a small fortune. Napoleon III famously had a set of aluminium cutlery reserved for honoured guests, while less important ones dined with silver. Imagine doing that today!

It was only after mass production was made possible after 1886, that aluminium became a common industrial metal. Those earrings shown above were just about 25 years old at that time, and suffered the same fate as your previous iPhone: expensive on purchase, totally worthless a few years later. Today, they’re expensive again – not because of their material value, but because of their historical value.

Changing jewellery value: amethyst

And did you know amethyst long ranked alongside diamonds as a major gemstone? It was associated with royalty and the Church – until large deposits were discovered in Brazil, amethysts became readily available, and its status plummeted. You can now buy amethysts anywhere, from spiritual shops to your corner jwellery store.

Changing jewellery value: a historical constant

So, in other words, what we see now with lab-grown diamonds is not entirely new. Materials once considered second-rate can, over time, take on new layers of value as they become part of cultural history. And materials once rare and exotic lost their financial value after mass production made them accessible to a larger audience.

I’ve shown you just two examples above, but this ebbing and flowing of material value is a constant throughout history. Fancy types of flint were imported from faraway lands in prehistoric times, iron was a breathtakingly new material for Tutankhamun, glass knocked everyone’s socks off when it was first invented, pearls were super expensive and rare until Mr. Mikimoto invented culturing….the list goes on. Why should the value of diamonds be any different?

The diamond for everyone: what the Zeeman pendant reveals

The run on Zeeman’s webshop shows there is real demand for accessible diamonds. For many, the chance to gift or own a diamond was out of reach until now. And if jewellery is about meaning, about marking moments and relationships, then a €29.99 pendant can absolutely become an heirloom in its own right.

That is what fascinates me most: Zeeman has forced us to look straight at the assumptions of the jewellery trade. Scarcity, prestige, value – they are not fixed truths, but shifting ideas shaped by people, culture and time.

I must admit that as a historian, I quite enjoy how Zeeman stirs things up, holding a mirror up to the jewellery world – and yes, if a second batch is released, I’ll probably be queuing online with everyone else!

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References

See the diamond pendant itself here.

More on the lawsuit is here.

See more on the remarkable rise and fall of aluminium here.

The Bedouin Silver blog gives credit where credit is due! Transparent referencing and citing sources helps us all grow. Would you like to do the same and quote this article? Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

The Fascination of Jewellery

The Fascination of Jewellery

by | European jewellery, Museums & Exhibitions

7,000 years of jewellery art

The Fascination of Jewellery

Published January 1, 2025

An exhibition of 7,000 years of jewellery: of course, I had to go and see that! The Cologne Museum of Applied Arts (MAKK) devoted an exhibition based on its own formidable collection of jewellery. It turned out to be a beautiful, albeit very classic, jewellery exhibition.

The MAKK jewellery collection

The MAKK holds around 1,700 pieces of jewellery in its collection. As this is a design museum (and so not specifically a jewellery or historic museum), and the collection has been built by both acquisition and generous gifts, the collection reflects a traditional European viewpoint of jewellery: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 19th century form its focal points. [1]

The geographical focus of all this is profoundly European [2]: among the antiquities, there are of course pieces from the ancient civilizations in North Africa and Southwest Asia – these were avidly collected in Europe.

The ‘cross-cultural content’ of the exhibition, as mentioned on the exhibition website, therefore is to be seen as more cross-cultural within Europe, rather than cross-cultural as in: including non-Western cultures.

7,000 years of jewellery art in the MAKK

The exhibition itself is organised thematically as well as chronologically. This works very well: each showcase is devoted to a theme, which itself is then built up chronologically. The texts with each theme are very accessible and enlighting.

I loved that the exhibition started out with amulets as one of the first themes – one of my favourite capacities of jewellery! See a few of these in the gallery above: click to enlarge the images. Other themes include rings, mourning jewellery, inspiration from flora and fauna, as well as more stylistic developments such as the emergence of archaeologically inspired jewellery, Art Nouveau and mass-produced jewellery. A series of modern designs finally showcases contemporary takes on themes such as identity, the relation to the human body and intricate constructions.

The Fascination of Jewellery: the dreamed potential

I very much enjoyed seeing all of these stunning jewellery items and wandering through themes and time-periods. What I missed however, was an opportunity to highlight the meaning of jewellery beyond the art-historian.

For the Middle Ages for example, the art of enamelling in southern Europe and North Africa forms a technical connection between worlds that could have enhanced the exhibition, and the stylistic impact of the steppe peoples from Central Asia on early medieval jewellery is a beautiful illustration of how worlds are connected rather than separated.

And if ever there was a category of jewellery that underscores identity, it would be regional dress and adornment. The regional jewellery of the German-speaking world alone is so rich and varied, that attention to this jewellery, of more common people, could have added another layer of significance to the exhibition.

Of course, I understand that the collection of the MAKK formed the backbone of this exhibition, and also that this is one of the most respected collections of European jewellery – the jewellery shown in the exhibition is stunning and a privilege to study, no argument there. But with even a few loans from other collections, I think this particular exhibition could have transcended to an even more meaningful goal: building bridges in an increasingly fragmenting society – through jewellery. Illustrating how techniques, forms and designs form part of a shared cultural background of 7,000 years is, or could have been, an incredibly powerful message.

The Fascination of Jewellery: the catalogue

Despite my personal daydream of what a jewellery exhibition could offer, the objects on display are absolutely fabulous. Every single piece of jewellery is breathtaking!And so, I always hope for a catalogue with a jewellery exhibition.

Now one of the great things about exhibitions in German museums happens to be the catalogues, and the book that comes with this exhibition is no exception. It’s a huge, beautiful volume of more than 350 pages, entirely bilingual in German and English, and presents beautiful, crisp photos of the exhibited jewellery along with well-researched and insightful texts. It offers background on the collection strategy, has an introductory chapter on the collection itself by none other than Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, and gives ample explanations with every piece of jewellery featured.

The Fascination of Jewellery: 7,000 years of jewellery art

You will love this exhibition for the quality of its jewellery, offered to a wide public through easily digestible texts and themes. Wandering across the beautifully lit and designed showcases, you will get a great introduction into European jewellery throughout the ages. The catalogue that goes with the exhibition is a must if you work with European jewellery in any capacity! And even though I would have let this spectacular jewellery collection be the inspiration for a different type of exhibition myself, I had a great time – and I’m convinced you will, too.

The Fascination of Jewellery. 7,000 years of jewellery at the MAKK.

I visited the exhibition on my own initiative on Dec 28th, 2024, and purchased the catalogue myself.

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The Fascination of Jewellery: references

[1] Focal points as mentioned on the website of the museum, accessed January 1st, 2025.

[2] As explained in the catalogue, p. 14/15.

The Bedouin Silver blog gives credit where credit is due! Transparent referencing and citing sources helps us all grow. Would you like to do the same and quote this article? Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

Not Lost But Gone Before

Not Lost But Gone Before

by | European jewellery, General jewellery topics

Jewellery conference

Not Lost But Gone Before

Published on October 26, 2024

When you have been following this blog for a while, you know that jewellery to me is a historic source. It shares a lot about both the people that made and wore these items as well as the world they lived in. No jewellery is more personal in that respect than mourning jewellery. Even though this is a very Western thing, I have been fascinated by it for quite some time, and so I jumped at the chance to co-organise Not Lost But Gone Before, an entire afternoon of talks about this particular topic!

Not Lost But Gone Before: the title

Not Lost But Gone Before was born out of enthusiasm of three people. Kim van Zweeden is a jewellery researcher and podcast host with a wide interest in all things jewellery. Sophie van Gulik is a jewellery specialist and researcher, and the third person, you guessed it, is me.

We share an appreciation of the beauty and history in mourning jewellery, and so we almost organically came up with the idea to organise a symposium when we learned the one and only Sarah Nehama was coming to The Netherlands! Sarah is a specialist on mourning jewellery and author of the book In Death Lamented: see more about that here.

We named the symposium after one of the mottos that is often found on mourning jewellery: Not Lost But Gone Before is a beautiful line, instilling hope in those left behind that they may be reunited with their loved ones at some unknown point in the future.

Mourning jewellery

Mourning jewellery is incredibly personal and sentimental. From the 17th century onwards, jewellery commemorating departed loved ones became fashionable, and this reached an absolute peak in the 19th century. Queen Victoria donned mourning dress after the death of her husband Albert, and as such singlehandedly created a boom in the market for all sorts of mourning jewellery.

Much of that jewellery has survived, and is avidly collected. Our symposium sold out, and we were thrilled to have a room filled with an audience eager to learn more and share!

Sarah presented an overview of mourning jewellery, starting with the earliest memento mori-jewellery and finishing in the 20th century. She explained how styles developed and how new techniques found their way into mourning jewellery, such as daguerreotypes and photography.

Sophie shared the memory of her ancestor, Anna Paulowna (Pauline) van Gulik. This was a powerful story on how personal jewellery can be: after the early death of Pauline, her family went into mourning and held on to every single piece of material culture surrounding her death and funeral. Photos, jewellery, mourning dress and other mementos are still kept in the family until today, and illustrate how hard letting go can be.

Kim brought us a kaleidoscopic overview of mourning customs in her home province, Zeeland. We learned about the stages of mourning expressed through jewellery and dress, the (sometimes) very local customs and choices, and brought us up to speed with traditions from Zeeland.

And finally, I presented a talk on a unique mourning ring from the Netherlands, a piece that ties in closely with national history and the mythmaking that surrounds historical figures.

Mourning jewellery: exhibition

Of course, no symposium on jewellery is complete without an exhibition! We curated a small, but beautiful exhibition on mourning jewellery from The Netherlands and the UK. In it, we addressed materials, such as hairwork and jet. Hairwork is not necessarily exclusively for mourning, but how to tell the difference? And while mourning jewellery is often associated with jet, in The Netherlands this does not exist: mourning jewellery is made of black glass. Mourning necklaces from various in The Netherlands, brooches and rings from both The Netherlands and the UK as well as a beautiful selection of mourning dress in Sophie’s family allowed the guests to enjoy an overview of the wide field of mourning jewellery.

Not Lost But Gone Before: a recurring event

The symposium on mourning jewellery was well received: the room was sold out and we had guests coming from considerable distances to join in. The mingling and discussions afterwards, as well as the experiences shared around the exhibition, made it abundantly clear that there is still so much to explore and share! Not Lost But Gone Before will return in 2025: if you’d like to be kept informed, please drop me a line and we will add you to our mailing list for this event!

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The Bedouin Silver blog gives credit where credit is due! Transparent referencing and citing sources helps us all grow. Would you like to do the same and quote this article? Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

The Art of the Ring: book review of the Griffin Collection

The Art of the Ring: book review of the Griffin Collection

by | European jewellery, Reviews

Rings from the Griffin Collection

The Art of the Ring: book review

Published on July 31, 2024

Who does not love rings? I think it may be fair to say people have always been obsessed with them, and so they have been both produced ánd collected in large numbers. The Art of the Ring by Diana Scarisbrick presents highlights from one such collection, the privately held Griffin Collection, and offers both a visual and scholarly journey into ring history. In this review, I’ll walk you through its strengths, highlights, and how it compares with other landmark publications on rings.

The Griffin Collection: earlier publications

The Art of the Ring is the third volume in a series devoted to rings from the Griffin Collection. The collection is huge, and the two previous books have zoomed in on one particular category of rings. Take this Ring explored medieval and renaissance rings, and I like my choyce presents the history of posy rings. The Art of the Ring takes another approach: here, the aim is to present a cross-section through the collection. In that way, you could think of this as the prequel to the other volumes: it introduces the collection.

Highlights of the Griffin Collection of rings

Introducing such a vast collection is no easy thing to do! The book presents 100 rings, some of which have been featured in other publications, and some are published here for the first time. This selection is divided into 8 chapters, each focusing on a certain type of ring. There are signet rings, devotional rings, Memento Mori and memorial rings, Love, Marriage and Friendship rings, rings related to daily life, rings set with coloured stones, diamond rings and rings with royal and noble associations. Each chapter sets out with an introduction on the central theme.

Comparing The Art of the Ring with other publications

These sections largely coincide with those of another publication by Diana Scarisbrick, Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty (2007). This book presents the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, expanded with rings from museum and private collections to form a comprehensive overview of rings. That makes it very easy to read both books in tandem, compare both collections and as such expand your insight in the subject.

Photography and presentation in The Art of the Ring

Each ring in The Art of the Ring has its own ‘passport’: several photos, a description, and an explanation of what we see and how this particular ring fits into a wider context. And for each ring, you will also find an overview of its provenance (how did it end up in this collection?), where it has been exhibited, and where it has been published.

I did wish some of the photos would be larger. As there is a lot of information included per ring, the space allocated to photos of the ring itself sometimes just is not that much. For example, ring no. 20 is an Italian ring with a sardonyx cameo showing the Shroud of Turin: a magnification here would have been helpful, as the image itself is crisp, but on the small side. That is not to say all of them are small! Throughout the book, page-sized details allow the reader to take in splendid details. But where Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty presents large photos overall, the illustrations in The Art of the Ring are notably smaller.

European focus and perspectives in ring collecting

The Art of the Ring focuses on European rings, with Byzantine rings as the most ‘eastern’ representatives. The other two publications dedicated to the Griffin Collection also are firmly focused on the West  – at least, that we know of: perhaps this private collection holds more than has been published yet!

That perspective on European/Western rings appears in other books and other collections, too: there are few collections that include the Islamic world as well. Such as the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, which holds a large number of Islamic rings, and which have been published in Islamic Rings & Gems. The Zucker Collection.

Why is that perspective important? One example from The Art of the Ring may illustrate this point.

The Italian sapphire ring with Arabic inscription

That is the super stunning Italian inscribed gold ring with a sapphire carrying an Arabic inscription. It is featured in both The Art of the Ring and in Cycles of Life, also drawing from the Zucker collection – jewellery travels, and this ring has moved from one collector to another. See an image of this beautiful ring here.

In Cycles of Life, the discussion of this particular ring is very complete, with a presentation of two parallels. The same ring is also briefly featured in Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty, and now in The Art of the Ring as well – with a most breathtaking photo. In all three books, the sapphire is treated as ‘the odd one out’, a rare stone to be included in an Italian ring. But when browsing through the two volumes of Ruby, Sapphire & Spinel: An Archaeological, Textual and Cultural Study (2016), where sapphires are discussed in their cultural context throughout time, we learn much more about the importance and meaning of sapphire as well as inscribed Islamic gems. Such a wider scope would make this collection even more fascinating.

The Art of the Ring in context of other ring books

As I said above, this volume is dedicated to the Griffin Collection. As with all collections, the choices of the collector determine what the scope of the collection is, and so I enjoyed comparing The Art of the Ring with a few other collections that live on my bookshelves. This is, incidentally, why you would want to own not just one book on rings: it’s when they all get together that you’ll start learning!

By the same author, there is the book I already mentioned, Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty (2007), with the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection as its core. This collection starts earlier, timewise: where the Griffin Collection seems to start out with Greek and Roman rings, the Zucker Collection also holds Egyptian rings (that’s another 3,000 years of rings).

That same collection is also published in Cycles of Life which uses a different approach in linking rings to stages in our lives: birth, marriage, death, eternity, and everyday life. This book adds more descriptive detail to its 41 rings, and discusses parallels for each piece as well, something that The Art of the Ring does not.

And where The Art of the Ring is organised thematically, the V&A publication on its ring collection Rings is built chronologically. Both books are still quite comparable, with many examples from the same timeframes featuring in both books.

Although this brief comparison is clearly far from exhaustive, it hopefully gives you some idea of the nature of The Art of the Ring in relation to other books on European ring collections.

Conclusion: why The Art of the Ring is a beautiful book

Whether you are working as a curator, collector, or simply adore rings, The Art of the Ring is a book you will want to own.

It is expertly written and presents an engaging introduction in the beautiful ring collection of the Griffin Collection. It complements the previous two volumes wonderfully, and is also a great companion volume to Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty. But even without its sibling books, The Art of the Ring is a volume that very well holds its own – it’s a wonderful overview of rings.

The only drawback is the size of some photos, notably for the rings that have not been published before, but I really enjoyed this book as a valuable introduction into a collection of which I hope many more volumes will be published!

More about The Art of the Ring

The Art of the Ring. Highlights from The Griffin Collection.

By Diana Scarisbrick (2024). 240 pages, full-colour, in English. Published by AD ILISSVM/Paul Holberton Publishing.

I received the book as review copy.

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Bibliography

Church, R. 2017. Rings. Thames & Hudson/V&A

Content, D.J. 2016. Ruby, Sapphire & Spinel: An Archaeological, Textual and Cultural Study, Brepols

Content, D.J. (ed) 1987. Islamic Rings & Gems. The Zucker Collection. Philip Wilson Publishers

Hindman, S. 2014. Cycles of Life. Rings from the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection. Les Enluminures

Hindman, S. 2015. Take this Ring. Medieval and Renaissance Rings from the Griffin Collection. Les Enluminures

Scarisbrick, D. 2007. Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty. Thames & Hudson

Scarisbrick, D. 2021. I like my Choyce. Posy Rings from the Griffin Collection. AD ILISSVM/Paul Holberton Publishing

Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

French Hallmarks

French Hallmarks

by | European jewellery, Reviews

A definitive guide

French Hallmarks

Published on March 15, 2024

After the beautiful first volume of French Regional Jewellery, a new book by Michael Fieggen has appeared that is sure to fill a gap in your library! French hallmarks, in detail, with just about everything you’d want to know.

French hallmarks: a practical book

For this book, let’s start at the very end of it: with the indexes. On the last pages you will find indexes of hallmarks, described visually: bees, amphoras, crabs, sphinxes, bulls….even if you have not read a single line in the book, it is immediately of very practical use. Look at the hallmark, identify the shape you see, look it up in the index.

There’s even a chapter with advice on magnifying glasses you’ll need to see the hallmarks: how to buy one, how to use one, and how to properly look at a piece of jewellery. And that’s just the end of the book: there is, of course, so much more!

French hallmarks: a completely new study

This is a book born out of one those ideas that seemed like a really good plan when you first thought of them, and that turn out to lead you straight into another rabbit hole of research. While working on his first book on regional jewellery (see more about it here), the author thought it would be useful to include an overview of hallmarks on jewellery.

When he started looking into them, he soon found that listing an overview of hallmarks was way more complicated than previously thought. Contradicting sources, no sources, erroneously copied marks that continued to be reproduced….there was a lot to tackle. And so, starting from scratch all over again, it took another two years to complete this book.

The result is a study which offers a very detailed overview of platinum, gold and silver hallmarks. It includes hallmarks that have never been published before, and shows a detailed history of hallmarks as they vary over time and per region.

French hallmarks and ethnic jewellery

For jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, I rely on the formidable book World Hallmarks Vol. II by the Hallmark Research Institute. From 1859 to 1967, Algeria used the same hallmarks as those in France – that was because France regarded colonized Algeria as an integral part of their country. The only way to see if a piece of jewellery has been hallmarked in Algeria, is through the mark of the assay office.

The new book by Michael Fieggen includes all those assay offices, not just for Algeria (those are in the World Hallmarks book, too) but also for other regions that were once part of France. Like my own country, The Netherlands: there have been several assay offices located throughout The Netherlands in the early 1800’s.

With the wealth of information in this book, I will be able to date French-marked jewellery all the more precise!

French Hallmarks: a book you’ll need

This book is very well illustrated with clear drawings, schematics and close-up photos. I always find that very helpful, as a stamped mark may look just a little different from the drawing, and seeing them side by side helps in determining what I’m looking at.

It also contains schematics of the placement of hallmarks on different types of jewellery (so you’ll know where to look for it). There is detailed information on import marks, export marks, counterstamps, methods to test for silver and gold content, a bibliography, and a glossary.

And what I really liked, are the small sections with a single anecdote dispersed throughout the book: little bits of additional info that help to understand the hallmarks in their context.

The hardcopy of the book is in French, as you see above in the photo, but for foreign orders an English pdf is available: check the website for more details.

If you are working with French hallmarked jewellery in any capacity, you will greatly benefit from this book!

 

More about French Hallmarks

Les poinçons français des métaux précieux, de 1789 á ce jour.

By Michael C.W. Fieggen (2024). 190 pages, full-colour, available in French (hardcopy) and English (pdf). Published by Michael Fieggen.

Available with the author via this link

The book was gifted as review copy by the author.

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S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

In Death Lamented

In Death Lamented

by | European jewellery, Reviews

The Tradition of Anglo-American mourning jewelry

In Death Lamented

Updated August 08, 2024

Jewellery serves many more purposes than just being pretty, and that is what I love about it. One of those purposes is to accompany its wearers through major events – like dealing with the death of a loved one. In Death Lamented by Sarah Nehama presents an overview of mourning jewellery in the Anglo-American world.

In Death Lamented: the exhibition and the book

In Death Lamented is the companion volume with the exhibition of the same name, held in 2012 in Massachusetts. And oh, would I have loved to see that! Instead, I am super lucky to now own the book, and I love it. Because, as Sarah writes in her introduction, she approaches this jewellery from a historical perspective – and you know that is what makes me tick, too!

The book showcases the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society alongside the private collection of Sarah herself. Together, they illustrate the development of mourning jewellery over time.

Mourning jewellery across centuries

In Death Lamented presents an overview of mourning jewellery from the 17th century to the late 19th century. As the title says, its focus is on Anglo-American jewellery, and as such this is the historical perspective as well.

That overview starts out in the 15th and 16th centuries. In this timeframe, jewellery with a memento mori-theme (‘remember you must die’) was created to remind the wearer of their own mortality. Actual mourning jewellery, so in remembrance of a loved one, also existed during this period.

The popularity of mourning jewellery took off when the English King Charles I was executed – mourning his death became an act of resistance among his supporters and jewellery became a secret token of allyship. The book shows a few of these pieces, and describes how these customs crossed the Atlantic to continue to flourish there.

Mourning jewellery in colonial America

The next chapter explores mourning jewellery in 17th and 18th century, mostly in the New World. A completely new practice, at least for me, was handing out mourning rings at funerals – apparently, attending as many funerals as possible and collecting these almost like souvenirs [p. 23] was quite the rage!

This chapter discusses the evolving stylistic elements of mourning jewellery, including the incorporation of hair. That is a topic I particularly love, as hair has very strong personal and ritual capacities in so many cultures. The catalogue with this chapter illustrates those evolving styles: with each piece of jewellery, an elaborate description places the jewel in its cultural context and presents what is known about the persons they commemorate: I loved reading this little personal histories.

Mourning jewellery of the New Republic

The story of mourning jewellery then continues in the late 18th and 19th century. Here, we see the imagery change, reflecting changes in funerary customs as well. [p. 42] I found it fascinating to read how the visual language of the Classical world made an appearance in mourning women, silent urns and weeping willows [p. 42] and how the visual codes changed from skulls and bones to more hopeful symbols.

This transition is also abundantly shown in the catalogue with this part: here as well, personal histories of the persons remembered intertwine with political history. I learned that the death of George Washington spurred another flurry of mourning jewellery, illustrated by a locket holding a few of his hairs.

Mourning jewellery before the Civil War

In the 19th century, archaeological revival styles became fashionable and left their mark on mourning jewellery as well. Increasingly, medieval (notably Gothic) and Etruscan styles became popular. The language of particular materials such as pearls or diamonds was reinforced by the language of flowers, a development I also read about in this book on Lover’s Eyes jewellery.

Following the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria famously went into heavy mourning that set off an entire industry of jet jewellery. This was picked up upon on the other side of the Atlantic as well, and jet and hair jewellery became very, very popular. And of course, there was a new invention that added another layer to the intensity of mourning jewellery: photography.

Mourning jewellery from the Civil War to the end of the 19th century

The book concludes with the surge in mourning jewellery as a result of the Civil War, the death of Prince Albert and the murder of Abraham Lincoln. It also discusses how mourning jewellery came to an end: hairworks became to be perceived as ‘unsanitary’, life circumstances improved in general, and ostentatiously showing loss and grief became less socially acceptable.

In Death Lamented: a wonderful overview of mourning jewellery

It’s safe to say I have learned again a great deal in reading this book. I loved how the author places jewellery against its historical and cultural background and explains how styles evolved, symbolism changed and mourning jewellery continued to take on new meanings. The many photographs are large, clear and very insightful.

The descriptions of the jewellery are also consistent and precise. Especially with objects that carry text, it really helps to know what the original, surviving text is, and where individual letters or numbers have been reconstructed. This, along with the guidelines for measurements given, is explained in the editorial note at the beginning of the book.

This is absolutely a book you will love – whether you’re studying, selling or just are interested in this particular type of jewellery!

More about In Death Lamented

In Death Lamented. The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry. By Sarah Nehama (2012). 128 pages, full-colour, in English. Published by University of Virginia Press.

Available with the publisher and the Massachusetts Historical Society

See more about Sarah’s research on mourning jewellery here!

I purchased the book directly from Sarah.

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Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.