Here is the latest short essay by our resident decorative arts curator, Laura Gray:
Spring Time Flowers
Flowers are the essence of springtime. With this beautiful necklace St Erasmus is in good company as floral fabrics and jewellery that evoke nature have been fashionable for hundreds of years.
Design for Spitalfield silk, watercolour on paper by Anna Maria Garthwaite, 1763 (V&A Museum collection)
By the Victorian era, after the classical styles of the first decades of the 19th century, jewellery was often decorated with clearly recognisable flowers and fruit. These motifs became fashionable with the widespread interest in botany and the influence of Romantic poets such as Wordsworth. As the century advanced the extravagance associated with Victorian design became more pronounced and the delicate early floral designs gave way to more flamboyant and complex compositions of flowers and foliage.
Bodice ornament in the form of a floral spray of roses, 1850 (V&A Museum collection)
The colours in nature were matched by coloured gemstones, and a 'language of flowers' spelt out special messages. For instance a pink roses represented perfect happiness and blue violets stood for faithfulness.
The use of intricately woven metallic threads by St Erasmus calls to mind the metal thread embroidery that was a feature of seventeenth and eighteenth century costume.
Metallic Shoes, c.1780 (Manchester Gallery collection)
This was the most costly form of decoration and used for the most formal clothing where it would have shone and sparkled in candlelight.
St Erasmus' Honeycomb Earrings,
Freshwater Pearls and gold metallic thread
£55
The complete St Erasmus collection can be seen in Jewellery Room 2
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