THE 18TH CENTURY - DID YOU KNOW?

Substantial quantities of diamonds arrived from South America, making conspicuous display of the gem possible.

Superbly offset by their rose and brilliant cuts, diamonds adorned all kinds of jewels, themselves more elegant than ever, and thereafter worn principally by women.

Claws held the stones in silver settings, which from the 1760s onwards were backed with gold to avoid tarnishing the wearer’s skin and dress.

Diamonds were reserved for evening since it was considered vulgar to parade them by day!

It was good form to wear a diamond parure – a matched set of jewellery - rather than a miscellany of jewels of different types. Abundant supplies from South Africa from the 1870s onwards made diamonds available to all who could afford them.

Graceful branches caressed the face, pretty stomachers and bow-knots… diamonds abounded throughout the age of Romanticism, the Second Empire and into the Belle Époque!

Seen under the blaze of gas and electric lighting, diamond’s brilliance showed to greater advantage than coloured stones and so its popularity grew even further!

As an alternative to silver, settings were increasingly executed in platinum, which could carry the weight of many stones in a light setting.