Unique vintage costume jewellery - necklaces, brooches, bracelets, sets, accessories and glamour...

The Art Nouveau movement revitalised jewellery design with its main source of inspiration being forms depicting nature and organic flowing lines. Pieces of jewellery were produced which were made of high quality enamel and set with opals and semi precious stones. Leading Art Nouveau jewellers such as Rene Lalique and Karl Faberge, created high end, extraordinary, beautiful and original pieces of fine jewellery including cuff-links, rings, necklaces, hat-pins, tiaras, theatrical head and corsage ornaments.inspired by natural and mythological themes such as enchanted women, mythical beasts, insects and exotic flowers.

As a result of this, costume jewellery was produced to replicate these fine pieces of jewellery and jewellery was made from "humble" materials such as horn, glass and enamel which was made into melancholic botanical pins, dragonfly brooches and femme-fleur (women's faces with flowing hair arising from leaves and flowers). Such was the demand for these designs, led to mass produced pieces, and the movement eventually dissipated.

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Also, the curvaceous, flowing, sensual curves of jewellery design which was popular in the Art Nouveau period, was supposedly echoed in the desire for female emancipation, with role models such as the legendary French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, having a huge influence on jewellery design, with cut price copies of pieces of jewellery that she wore, flying of the shelves as women wanted to replicate her style.