Purely a question of style

Nineteenth-century jewellery is distinguished by a wide range of styles existing both in succession and in parallel, a trend that replaced the predominance of single period styles as known up to then. The social and political upheavals that began with the French Revolution and the concomitant new sense of history and nationalism were the triggers of this eruption of stylistic plurality and one of the reasons for the emergence of such an eclectic blend of styles. Specific historical and cultural events, such as the building of the Suez Canal (1859–1869) and the World’s Fairs that took place at regular intervals from 1851 on, also played a role.

The early nineteenth century saw a first revival of past period styles such as the Romanesque, the Gothic and the Renaissance concomitantly with the rise of the Romantic movement. Moreover, archaeological excavations and the study of ancient jewellery led to historicising tendencies in jewellery design. Among the leading exponents of what is known as the archaeological style were Eugène Fontenay (1823– 1887) in Paris and the Castellani family workshop in Rome run by Fortunato Pio Castellani (1794–1865) and his sons, Alessandro (1823–1883) and Augusto (1829–1914).