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Antique Jewelry Guide Part 1
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Antique Jewelry Information
Antique Chains
Part 2...Victorian
Chains
For much of
the 19th century chain were made by hand-working skills.
Because of the work involved, craftsmen avoided very
fine links and chains were designed carefully in order
to reduce the time making them. This is understandable.
I myself tried my hand at silversmithing and very well
know how much work can go into a single piece, yet alone
a bunch of chain links! So these craftsman used their
ingenuity and made longer links. Made sense. Some of the
chains were made from hundreds of tiny stampings which
needed no soldering.
As you
can see in this pic, there are three chains above
(the left three) that are machine stamped and connected
with O rings.
The
Graduated Curb Chain is typical example of labor intensive
chainmaking. The Loop-In-Loop chain is of ancient origin and
there are many clever variations on this simple basic idea. The
advantage was that each loop could be soldered before being
assembled, thus preventing the problem of accidentally soldering
a number of links together.
Watch Chains
The watch chain served the practical function of allowing the
watch to be taken from the pocket and retained securely while
being used. The
Albert Chain was a long chain which was secured at the
center to one of the buttonholes of the waistcoat and hung in
curves to pockets on each side. (SEE BELOW)
c 1892
Variety of Ladies' Rolled Plate Victoria Chains
by
COLLECTIBLE JEWELS
© Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003
All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission
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