After selling out first time around we are happy to announce the return of the Bronze Hummingbird Skull necklaces by New York jeweller Erica Weiner. I thought this would be a good time to take a peek into the world of the Victorian fascination for the tiny hummingbird.
The Victorians were quite an experimental lot when it came to jewellery, especially with their love of the exotic. Perhaps it was a combination of their tiny size (only 3 inches long including the beak), their exotic south American origins and the vibrancy of their plumage that made the hummingbird so popular for mounting onto earrings, necklaces, fans and brooches.
A visitor to Harry Emanuel's wonderful shop in 1865 described his stock as 'including hummingbird heads mounted in necklaces and earrings' and the international fashion for these birds endured until the 1870s. Leading jewellers such as Ward & Co and Boucard contributed bird and beetle jewellery to the International Exhibition of 1872 where the pieces were referred to as 'specimens of beautiful colour'.
Whilst, today, we would flinch at the thought of such jewellery it's fascinating all the same to see the extravagant and macabre display of how the Victorians showed their love for such creatures.
I think this long heritage of 'hummingbird jewellery' is why I haven't taken my Erica Weiner necklace off since I first saw it. It is so tiny and so intricate, it just seems impossible that something so fragile as a hummingbird skull can be cast in solid bronze. A tiny sculpture that I wear everyday.
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