Friday, January 13, 2017

Paste Gems

Brooch
England
ca. 1840-65
paste gems set in silver
originally owned by Pre-Raphaelite muse Jane Morris
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Shoe-buckle
Western Europe
ca. 1770
paste gems set in silver
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

PASTE  a  hard, vitreous composition (of fused silica, potash, white oxide of lead, borax, etc.) used in making imitations of precious stones; a factitious or artificial gem made of this.

1662  Christopher Merrett (translator). Neri's Art of Glass.
This past[e] imitates all Jewels and colours, and hath a wonderful shining and lustre, And in hardness too it imitates the jewels.

1718  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Letter to the Countess of Bristol, 10 April.
That paste with which they make counterfeit jewels.  

1753  Chambers' Cyclopaedia. 
Pastes  in the glass trade, a sort of compositions of the glass kind, made from calcined crystal, lead, and metallic preparations, to imitate the several natural gems. 

1796  Robert Burns. Poems on Life.
Tho' fiction out may trick her / And in paste gems and fripp'ry deck her. 

1824  Washington Irving. Tales of a Traveller.
High-heeled shoes, with paste or diamond buckles. 

1827  Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Pelham, or, The Adventures of a Gentleman.
The diamonds went to the jeweller's, and Lady Frances wore paste. 

– definition and citations, Oxford English Dictionary

Hair-pin
Spain
ca. 1865-70
silver-gilt set with paste emeralds
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Ring
Western Europe
ca. 1650-1700
enameled-gold set with paste emerald
Victoria & Albert Museum, London 

Bodice-ornament
England
ca. 1760
rock-crystals and pastes set in silver
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Pendant 
Western Europe
ca. 1750
pastes set in silver
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Earrings
Western Europe
1760s
silver-gilt set with pastes
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Pendant
Portugal
ca. 1750
silver openwork set with pastes
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Pendant
Western Europe
ca. 1760-80
opalines and white pastes set in silver
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The opaline was essentially a glass opal, another form of paste.

Brooch
Western Europe
ca. 1760
opaline and pastes set in silver
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Ornament
England
ca. 1770
opalines and pastes set in silver
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Bracelet Clasp
Western Europe
1790s
opalines and pastes set in silver
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Pendant
Switzerland
ca. 1800-1870
silver-gilt filigree set with black pastes
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Brooch
mass-produced by Schlichtegroll, Vienna
ca. 1855
silver-gilt openwork with paint imitating enamel
set with garnets, emeralds, pastes, imitation pearls
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

I am grateful to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for the excellent images.