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Medieval Jewelry: Fashion and Status
Technology Both monastic and secular goldsmiths worked in workshops. The famous
9th-century plan of an ideal monastery, preserved in the Abbey
of St. Gall in Switzerland, includes rooms for the aurifices, goldsmiths,
in the annex to the main workshop, next to the blacksmiths and fullers. Secular goldsmiths worked either in courts or in urban workshops. The largest cities in Europe, especially London and Paris, had a growing number of goldsmiths from the twelfth century. Their shops were situated in busy areas (in London, around Cheapside, east of St. Paul’s cathedral), often on bridges (the Grand-Pont in Paris and the Ponte Vecchio in Florence), so as to be in the main line of traffic. Jean de Garlande describes such a workshop in his Dictionary, written in the 1220s: ![]() ![]() Numerous other representations, including engravings such as a late
fifteenth-century work by the Master of Balaam showing St. Eloy in his
workshop or two engravings by Etienne Delaune of Augsburg, dated 1576,
depicting silversmiths’ workshops, illustrate the furnishings and activities
in the late medieval metalworkers’ workshops in great detail. In these
representations, countless tools—tongs, files, rasps, dividers, anvils,
hammers— hang on the walls. The Augsburg prints also contain furnaces and
devices used for creating wires. In this process, a crudely hammered, elongated
metal piece was repeatedly pulled through a drawplate, each time through
a smaller hole, with the help of a four-handled lever. Some medieval technical manuals, such as the De Diversibus Artibus
(On the different arts) written around 1120 by the monk Theophilus, who
himself must have been well-trained in the craft of metalworking, give
detailed accounts on the tools and equipment used for the goldsmiths’ work.
In the third chapter of the manual, Theophilus gives detailed instructions
on metalworking techniques. He explains how the workshop itself should
be set up, then describes a variety of anvils used for different purposes,
various sorts of hammers, rasps and files, chisels, pincers, chasing tools,
scorpers, drawplates for making wire, and a special device called organarium
for making beaded wire. Archaeological evidence provides further information on medieval working procedures. Sites with traces of the process of parting base metal from precious or gold from silver are sometimes found during excavations. Working tools and equipment, for example, hammers, moulds, crucibles, or the special vessel for separating gold from silver have also come to light. The workshops themselves rarely leave traces, as they were usually found within houses. Close examination of the surviving pieces, along with physical examination such as analysis of content, adds to our understanding of working techniques. Because of their small size, jewels were usually cast into shape with the cire perdue or lost wax technique. In this process, the shape of the future jewel was formed in wax, with wax channels added, then covered with kneaded clay. When the whole was fired, the clay hardened, and the wax ran out through the channels. The melted gold or silver was poured into the form through some channels, while other channels allowed the air to leave. In the end, the clay mould was broken and the joints were filed away. For multiple production, reusable, open moulds or piece moulds (consisting of several pieces) of metal were employed. Besides the lost wax technique, some pieces were worked into a three-dimensional shape by beating from the back (repoussé technique). For the preparation of applied decoration, such as brooches or dress fittings sewn unto clothing, often metal dies of copper alloy were used. A metal sheet was laid over the relief motifs of the die, and covered with a piece of lead. When the lead was struck with a hammer, the metal sheet in between took on the shape of the die below. Dies and moulds were often used by the same workshop for a considerable period of time. The different parts of jewelry were often joined by riveting or soldering (this latter done either at a temperature below 250°C with a tin solder or over 700°C with a hard solder of copper alloyed with gold or silver). The surface was also often decorated with techniques such as embossing (raising the metal from the back by beating), chasing (raising the metal from the front), engraving or punched decoration of varying fineness. A cheaper alternative was making the jewel out of some other kind of metal and covering it with silver or gold leaf. The process by which this was achieved is called mercury gilding. First an amalgam of mercury and gold was applied to the parts of the jewel to be gilded, then the object was heated and the mercury evaporated, leaving just the gold or silver, which was burnished at the end with a rabbit’s foot. The silver or gold core of the jewel was often further enriched by applications made of the same material. Designs were formed from gold or silver beads, beaded wire (granulation) or twisted wire (filigree) decoration. The real beauty of medieval jewels lay in the carefully designed contrast
between the shining silver or gold and the decoration of the surface with
niello, enamel, gems, and coloured glass paste. The addition of various
coloured materials greatly enriched the surface of the jewel. Engraved
designs were often filled with niello, a black paste-like mixture consisting
of copper sulphide or silver sulphide, then the surface was smoothed and
fired. The result was a stark contrast between the matt black niello and
the shining precious metal. Coloured surfaces could be achieved by the
application of either transparent of solid enamel. Enamel is coloured glass
fired onto the metal base. Medieval goldsmiths used enamel in a variety
of ways. Enamel cloissoné and filigree enamel consisted of
multi-coloured designs, where the various colours were in small compartments
separated by strips (in the case of filigree enamel, twisted wires) soldered
onto the base. A peculiar type of enamel cloissoné practised
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is the émail de plique
technique that introduced translucent cloisonné enamel on gold.
In the case of a very frequently used technique, enamel champlevé,
the enamel is contained in beds gouged into the metal. Basse-taille
enamel was translucent, added over a design engraved into the groundplate.
A special technique used from the fourteenth century was called ronde
bosse or painted enamel. The enamel was applied to previously roughened
surfaces in high relief or even completely in the round. The so-called
Dunstable Swan Jewel, a pendant of unknown function made in London around
1400, is among the most famous examples of the use of ronde bosse
enamelling (British Museum, London). The body of the gold swan is fully
covered with opaque white enamel. The working of gems and pearls also required a special technique. In
the early and high Middle Ages, gems were usually either used as gems en
cabochon, rubbed and polished until they gained a radiant, shiny, and
smooth surface. The art of stone engraving has been practised in western
art at least since the ninth century, when Metz became a centre for crystal
engraving for a short time. Some gems, like sapphires, were also decorated
with engraved design in fourteenth-century Paris. In the later Middle Ages,
gems were also cut into planes to give them a brilliant and radiating effect.
Simple patterns of diamond cutting, such as the oblong, rosette, and lozenge
shapes, developed by the fifteenth century. The cutting of stones gradually
became a separate craft done by jewellers and not the goldsmiths themselves.
In late medieval representations of goldsmiths’ workshops, the goldsmith
is shown in possession of large quantities of already cut stones, probably
acquired from the jeweller (Petrus Christus: St. Eloy in his Workshop).
Pearls, gained from fresh-water mussels, were pierced and used for necklace
strings or sewn onto textiles for decoration. When applied to jewels, they
were mounted on metal pins the end of which was sealed with a drop of gold.
Highly polished amber and jet was also used for decoration. The natural
shapes of corals and pearls were often exploited in the design of jewels,
especially from the sixteenth century onwards.
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