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Antique jewelry glossary
Welcome to our extensive antique jewelry glossary with around 1,500 jewelry related entries.If you feel you are missing an explanation, feel free to let us know and we will add it.
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Polychrome jewelry
Anglo-Saxon jewelry that is multicoloured by reason of being inlaid with garnets, blue and green glass, niello, and white shell-like material. It is of two varieties:
- So-called 'luxurious', with flat-cut foiled garnets and glass set in gold or silver cells built on a base of gold or silver, in the manner of cloisonné inlay, forming patterns of zoomorphic motifs, with panels of filigree wire ornament between the cells and along the border.
- So-called 'humble', with the base and plate of silver or bronze cast in one piece, having a serrated edge in imitation of filigree and cells of simple patterns set with garnets and niello rings.
Such decoration is usually seen on disc brooches found in the countries of Kent and Suffolk, being an English style derived from, but an improvement on, Continental prototypes. After comparison with the Sutton Hoo Treasure, it has been established that such pieces were made between AD 550/600 and 700, rather than earlier as formerly believed. The Sutton Hoo brooches of East Anglia have larger garnets and the cloison cells are of much more complicated shapes than such Kentish brooches. A much earlier use of the polychrome style is found in Hellenistic jewelry and Roman jewelry.
From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson
