Inspired by nature – Fauna

Nature provides an inexhaustible source of inspiration for jewellery design. This is true both of materials used to make jewellery and the motifs chosen from the animal and plant kingdoms.

The earliest jewellery finds from the Upper Palaeolithic era (c.40,000–10,000 BC) already verify that horn, bones, snail shells and amber were used as materials for making jewellery, as they still are today. Floral and faunal motifs have not only the function of adornment. They are often laden with symbolism, have a mystic and cultic character and express social standing and tastes prevailing at any given time.

Enormous importance was attached to the scarab beetle in ancient Egyptian jewellery. As a divine creature and a lucky charm when reproduced, the scarab motif often featured on seal rings or as an amulet. Since antiquity the lion and the eagle have been among the most popular animal motifs. As symbols of power, they are still important heraldic charges.

Around 1900 Jugendstil/Art Nouveau dedicated itself intensively and imaginatively to the nature theme in an entirely new language of forms, materials and symbols. All species of insects, including butterflies and moths, bees, dragonflies and mysterious stylised hybrids, were popular motifs drawn from the animal kingdom.