Medieval jewellery is mostly found in museums these days – bold gold rings and religious pendants. Antique jewellery from the 18th and 19th century, set with a wider range of gems and using various techniques, is more available to buy and wear.
Some of this is down to how many people lived in the British Isles in medieval times compared to the mid 18th century onwards. The population grew from only a couple of million in the medieval period (with wars and plague taking their toll), to 10 million in the mid 18th century and 30 million by the mid 19th. So there was just a lot less jewellery made in medieval times.
Of course back then, only the rich and powerful wore jewellery. Monarchs had their crowns, chains and rings. High ranking clergy were often wealthy, wearing signet rings and enamelled crosses. Knights would have heraldic rings to show allegiances and to seal documents. By the late middle ages, wealthy merchants might also have chains and rings.
But it wasn’t just wealth that determined all this – sumptuary laws dictated who was allowed to wear what. These laws prohibited non-nobles from wearing gold and gemstones. In Elizabethan England, purple, along with silk and certain furs, was reserved for the Royal Family and their immediate relatives. The wearing of jewellery only became more commonplace later on – fuelled by the success of the British Empire at gathering resources from around the world.
Techniques evolve and are reborn
Even though there were relatively few of them, medieval craftsmen were highly skilled.
Champlevé enamelling, for instance, flourished in the 12th century, particularly in Limoges, France. Recesses were carved into a metal surface and filled with enamel powder, which was fired to fuse. The technique added vibrant colour and was used to represent saints, heraldic devices and Christian symbols. These techniques faded by the 15th century but re-emerged in different forms. And by the 1800s, enamellers began using machine etching and chemical etching (acid) rather than entirely hand-carved cells. Even the tutti frutti aesthetic of the Art Deco period could be said to share the traits of color blocking and surface decoration.
Diamonds were rarely used in early medieval jewellery due to their hardness and scarcity. However, the late Middle Ages marked the beginning of 500 years of diamond modification in Europe. Modern diamond cutting techniques that bring out the gems’ brilliance and fire were developed gradually between the 15th and early 20th century. The modern round brilliant cut was only finalised around WW1.
Gem cutting in the Middle Ages was more rudimentary. Before jewellers invented faceting techniques, cabochon cutting, where gems were shaped and polished into smooth, domed forms, was the main approach. This method preserved as much of the original stone as possible and was ideal for showcasing the natural translucency or colour of gems like garnet, sapphire, and amethyst. Because optical science wasn’t well developed, the aim was not brilliance and sparkle but symbolism, durability, and surface richness.
Despite this, it was the (very) late middle ages that kick started the timeline of how jewellers approach diamonds. In the late 15th century, the point and table cuts emerged in Europe, with basic polishing of natural octahedral diamonds. Two key new cuts emerged in the 18th to 19th Century – the old mine cut from the early 1700s (squarish shape with a high crown and small table) and then the old European cut (early-mid 1800s): rounder, with better symmetry, deeper pavilion, and the start of optimising for brilliance. It was in the early 20th century that today’s industry standard was developed, the modern round brilliant cut with 57 or 58 facets.
Despite these improvements, there was a revival of interest in cabochons in the Art Nouveau and Edwardian periods in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially for moonstones and opals. They remain popular today.
Granulation was another technique that was revived in the 19th century archaeological renaissance. Medieval jewellers would fuse tiny metal granules onto a surface to form patterns. It was an ancient Etruscan technique, preserved by medieval artisans with many goldsmithing techniques passed through ecclesiastical workshops.
Likewise, filigree was used extensively by Georgian jewellers. They would twist fine wire and solder it into lace-like motifs. This technique had been introduced to medieval Europe via both trade and conquest.
Finally, repoussé remained popular across the centuries. The technique raises designs by hammering from the back. It was widespread across Europe for both religious and personal jewellery and continued throughout Georgian and Edwardian pieces. Those periods also saw interest in Cameo carvings, a very different method but the equivalent stone aesthetic of metal work’s repousse.
Recurring themes: nature, heraldry and mortality
It wasn’t just techniques that were rooted in the early second millennium, but many of the themes and motifs of later accessories.
Heraldic symbols served a purpose in medieval times – coats of arms and family badges on signet rings and brooches were used to assert identity and allegiance. Georgian jewellery embraced the theme with crest rings and armorial intaglios (seals with heraldic details but largely shorn of their original meaning). In Victorian and Edwardian times, heraldic motifs were preserved in signet rings, fobs, and seal pendants, especially in aristocratic circles.
Nature and garden imagery was widely used in medieval times, rooted in Christian allegory with vines representing the blood of Christ. Centuries later, romanticism saw a renewed appreciation of nature’s beauty for its own sake, not just for its symbolism. The Edwardian and Art Nouveau eras put nature to the fore – until the post WW1 Art Deco era and its emphasis on geometric shapes.
Death was all around in medieval times. Symbols like skulls, hourglasses, skeletons, and coffins reminded the wearer of mortality and encouraged piety. Georgian mourning jewellery also featured hairwork or miniature mourning scenes in enamel – but it was deeply personal with hair of a deceased loved one replacing bones of saints. The Edwardians were also more sentimental, although the death of Prince Albert saw a return to more obvious mourning in Victorian times.
The middle ages were a superstitious time, with jewels thought to have powers (perhaps one reason the rich were so keen to keep them for themselves). The Georgians lent on this tradition and further developed the idea of birthstones, helping shift jewellery from a religious function to personal and emotional meaning. Ultimately science won out – but the traditional meanings remained for many gems.
Later eras also developed acrostic jewellery: rings and bracelets spelling out words like “DEAREST” or “REGARD” using the initials of gemstones (diamond, emerald, amethyst, etc.). Even this was a continuation from the late Middle Ages, where rings exchanged between lovers often bore short inscriptions (called posies) engraved on the inside.
The democratisation of jewellery: social and legal changes
Nothing sums up the changes in society better than amethyst – a rich, purple gem. Sumptuary laws had meant purple was not just a colour, it was a status symbol backed by law. Amethyst was therefore seen as a noble and religious gemstone, historically valued on a par with emeralds and rubies. Before the 18th century, amethyst deposits were found only in places like Russia and Sri Lanka, making it relatively rare.
Sumptuary laws fell out of favour in the 1600s and 1700s due to the rise of capitalism and mercantile wealth. There was a growing middle class who could afford luxury goods, so the rules were hard to enforce. What’s more, the 18th century saw the discovery of Brazilian amethysts in Minas Gerais, making amethyst and other gems far more accessible and affordable.
Alongside this, the church had had its grip loosened – the Reformation, the Renaissance, and growing secularism meant people no longer needed jewellery to prove their piety. Instead, they used it to show love, status and individuality.
This combination of greater accessibility and more freedom (at least for some) meant amethyst became more popular in the 1800s as a choice for jewellery, especially in sentimental and mourning jewellery. Purple was now a colour that anyone could wear. Jewellery was much more widespread. There were fewer legal restrictions.
It’s the layers of of history that enrich antique jewellery
It’s tempting to think of the last 1,000 years as a series of great ruptures – the shift from medieval to modern times, the decline of religious power. The way we think of history reinforces this – teaching important events like the Black Death or the shift from Tudors to Stuarts makes it seem like there were a series of fundamental, overnight changes.
Yet people remained the same – there were just many more of them, and different classes evolved. And most of the themes and techniques that were used in the 1800s and 1900s evolved from, and were first popularised, some 400 or 500 years earlier, often coming back into fashion despite more modern alternatives.
So when you look at an antique ring, even one that’s, say, 200 years old, you’re really looking at something older – something that’s only possible because of a technique a devout artisan helped develop some 500 years before that.
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