Antique jewelry glossary

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Head ornament

A head-dress of various types worn by men and women of the Western and Eastern worlds for ceremonial or ornamental purposes, usually made of a precious metal and embellished with gemstones. They include the crown, coronet, circlet, diadem, and tiara, and also some rare gold antique wreaths and helmets, as well as the less ornate fillet, bandeau, bandelet(te), chaplet, and ferronière, and types of hair ornament (including comb, hair pin, slide).

In the Orient they included a variety of styles, dating from articles of Sumerian jewelry, c. 2300 BC, to elaborate creations of gold or silver worn in China from the Sung Dynasty (960-1279) onwards and to pieces of Tibetan jewelry; the Chinese examples were sometimes in the form of a domed cap enclosed within a crown and from which projected ornaments in the form of gold plumes and framework pieces with decoration of flowers, fruits, and butterflies. Several types are found in pre-Columbian jewelry, including a type of diadem and a helmet.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson