En Tremblant

En Tremblant

It is difficult to imagine a world without electricity today.

But well into the early 20th Century many families didn’t have the luxury of electric light. If you had a family dinner, candlelight would light the tables.

And the jewellery worn at those dinner parties was made to look just as shimmering in candlelight as our modern day jewellery does in modern times.

Diamonds these days are cut ways to get as much brilliance as possible, but the diamonds cut in the 18th Century are not as refined. They are somewhat coarse and especially in the low countries, you would see rose-cut stones mounted. Those rose-cut diamonds were flat at the bottom and especially mounted on silver foil. It make them a little dull in daylight, but in

incandescant light these really came to life.

In the early 18th century the French had already discovered that even more brilliance could be achieved if parts of the diamond-set jewel were mounted on a coiled spring. Called trembleuse, 'trembler' is the French word for trembling, it referred to a jewel mounted onto a flower or other motif that would tremble whenever the piece was subjected to movement. And as our body move, so would the diamonds, thus creating a spectacular feast of brilliance.

The 'en tremblant' technique was especially popular for jewels with floral designs, which featured delicately quivering flowerheads. But they were also effective on insect brooches, like butterfly of dragonfly jewellery, with their moving wings or abdomen.

An example of a Dutch diamond foil back rose cut hanger from the 19th Century is now for sale in the shop. Intricately crafted and set in silver, it glistens all over with an array of closely set old mine-cut and rose-cut diamonds. Just switch off the electric light and turn to some classical music and light the candles. Put on this brooch, and its brilliance will shake up the evening.