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Art Deco Style

05/12/2016 1161 0 3

Art Deco Style

In the middle of the 1920s, the Art Nouveau style  gave way to Art Deco, which was very popular throughout the 1930's. Similar to  Art Nouveau, Art Deco had a strong design roots in France, and  the name is thought to have originated  from L’Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderne in Paris. France in 1925. Though the phrase was not generally ascribed to the style until 1968, when an English art historian named Bevis Hillier wrote his definitive "Art Deco of the 1920s and 1930s."



  

Art Deco style vintage jewellery -, L to R: Vintage carnelian and silver ring, amethyst drop necklace,
and sterling silver fan detail necklace


Antique Art Deco Jewellery defined by Symmetrical and Gemometric  Forms

Unlike Art Nouveau jewellery, which focused on organic and flowing forms, Art Deco jewellery is generally marked by its symmetry and geometry. In this respect, Art Deco has more similarities with the highly stylized designs of the Arts and Crafts Movement than Art Nouveau. In addition, the Art Deco style  is a product of the machine age. Art Deco designs often conform to grids, while other examples of the style  appear to be in motion, as if their design lines had been pulled along by the mechanical acceleration of the object itself.

Top Jewellery Designers Cartier and Van Cleef and Arpels, produced beautiful Art Deco Bracelets, Brooches, Earrings and Necklaces

Two of the most famous and respected jewellery designers of the era who produced beautiful art deco style necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches were Cartier and Van Cleef and Arpels. Their diamond -studded bracelets, ruby dashed brooches and sapphire earrings expressed the opulent free-spending abandon of the 1920's, Black onyx and red coral were also popular materials, used for their graphic properties if not their true  intrinsic value.

Art and its Influences on Art Deco Jewellery Styles

Art Deco jewellery did however reference more than geometry and machines. Many jewellery pieces were influenced by trends in the fine art world, particularly  Futurism and Cubism. In a later book called “Style of the Century,” Hillier notes  the  Art Deco style  as “tamed Cubism.” During the 1930's , various artists contributed to the so-called "pseudo-barbaric" version of Art Deco, among them Jean Dubuffet, Braque and Pablo Picasso.

Gold Art Deco Jewellery with Precious Stones and Metal

Sometimes Egytptian Revival designs are also sometimes lumped into the style of Art Deco, due to their repeated and radiating patterns in coloured enamels as well as precious  stones and metals. And Art Deco jewellery was made in gold, perhaps nowhere better than in Germany, where goldsmiths such as Theodor Wende and Emil Lettre made pendants necklaces and brooches, and other forms in graphic, geometric designs, sometimes incorporating pearls and emeralds into their work.