jewelry, objects of personal adornment prized for the craftsmanship going into their creation and generally for the value of their components as well.

Throughout the centuries and fromculture to culture, the materials considered rare and beautiful have ranged from shells, bones, pebbles, tusks, claws, andwood to so-calledprecious metals, precious and semiprecious stones,pearls,corals,enamels, vitreous pastes, and ceramics. In certain eras artist-craftsmen have sometimes placed less emphasis on theintrinsic value of materials than on theiraesthetic function as components contributing to the effect of the whole. Thus, they mightfashion abrooch out ofsteel orplastic rather thangold orplatinum. Furthermore, in addition to its decorative function, during much of its history jewelry has also been worn as a sign of social rank—forbidden bysumptuary laws to all but the ruling classes—and as atalisman to avert evil and bring good luck. During theMiddle Ages, for example, arubyring was thought to bring its owner lands and titles, to bestow virtue, to protect against seduction, and to prevent effervescence in water—but only if worn on the left hand. The famedCladdagh ring, a traditionalIrish ring featuring a heart, acrown, and two hands, has long symbolized love,loyalty, andfriendship, respectively. According to Irish custom, the ring’s positioning on the hand conveys the wearer’s marital status. It is also called the “friendship ring” or “hands and heart ring.”

Materials and methods

The first materials used to make objects for personal adornment were taken from the animal and vegetable world. The material taken from the animal world, in a natural or processed form,constituted the actual adornment, whereas vegetable fibres served as its support. A great variety ofshells and pieces of shell were used during the prehistoric age and are still used in certain island and coastalcultures to make necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and headdresses. In the inland regions the first materials used for personal adornment came frommammoths’ tusks, the horns ofreindeer and other animals, and, later on,amber andlignite.

All materials that have been used over the centuries for the manufacture of jewelry have undergone to some extent mechanical, physical, or chemical treatment for the purpose of transforming their raw shapes into shapes that, in addition to being functional, also satisfy certain aesthetic concepts.

Metals

Precious metals and their properties

Ofgold’s properties, when it was first discovered (probably inMesopotamia before 3000bce), it was themetal’s malleability that was a new phenomenon: onlybeeswax, when heated to a certain temperature, could be compared to it. Gold’s molecules move and change position in accordance with the stresses to which it is submitted, so that when it is beaten it gains in surface area what it loses in thickness. In modern jewelry, gold can take on a variety of hues when it is alloyed with other metals: water green, white, gray, red, and blue.

After gold,silver is the metal most widely used in jewelry and the mostmalleable. Although known during theCopper Age,silver made only rare appearances in jewelry before the Classical age. In general, silver was, and still is, used in jewelry for economic reasons or to obtain chromatic effects. It was often used in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, however, as support in settings fordiamonds and other transparent precious stones, in order to encourage the reflection of light.

Another rare metal, whose use in jewelry is fairly recent, isplatinum. From the 19th century onward this metal was used ever more frequently in jewelry because of its white brilliance and malleability, as well as its resistance to acids and its highmelting point.

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Modern jewelry, such as that designed by early 20th-century artists, introduced nonprecious metals such as steel.