Bizarre Antique Jewellery from My Personal Collection & Museums
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- Опубліковано 2 лют 2023
- The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1-month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/vbirchwood02231
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In this video, we explore some weird (and wonderful) antique jewelry! Historical fashion constantly surprises me, and even though I've covered bizarre Victorian fashion in the past, I felt that this weird antique jewellery deserved its own designated video. A lot of the items are from my personal antique jewellery collection, while others are specimens I've found on museum websites. I hope you enjoy looking at these beautiful treasures that pair oh so nicely with historical clothing.
Yours, etc.
V. Birchwood
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Sources:
Acrostic ring:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Hair and metal jewellery:
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Hair brooches:
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Choker necklace:
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Georgian choker necklace:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Lover’s eye:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Grape earrings: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Basket earrings:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Amber with artifacts:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Uranium glassware:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Bug jewellery:
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Ugly-pretty Victorian things:
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
#Skillshare #AntiqueJewellery #HistoricalFashion
![My Affordable Antique/Vintage Jewellery Tour [Mostly Under £20 (~$28)]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/11CCxXFQuzQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![My Affordable Antique/Vintage Jewellery Tour [Mostly Under £20 (~$28)]](/img/tr.png)
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1-month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/vbirchwood02231
Thank you so much to Skillshare for sponsoring this video! What was your favourite piece in the video?
‼️for the hand symbolism in Victorian jewelry. The hand has symbolized like loyalty and strength and fidelity since ancient times. So it represents that but specifically in friendship. The hand meant friendship when put on jewelry usually in a delicate pose holding flowers or something in Victorian era.
When my mother passed we took a large amount of hair she cut off a couple years prior. My eldest daughter braided it into a wreath and we placed it in a small shadow box. She added a bow and a small yellow butterfly. Her favorite color was yellow and she resonated with butterflies. So it is a nice representation & reminder of her. It has in my studio.
What a special way to remember your mother ❤️
I love that you incorporate jewelry that has a Victorian feel but may not necessarily be from that era. It makes your collection feel like something you’ve curated with love and not something for an academic collection. I think it also encourages people who may not have money for genuine antiques to experiment with affordable vintage, repro, and modern jewelry.
Thank you so much! Most of my antiques, as well, are £20 or less, as I have a careful budget too 😊
I have few rings from my great-grandma and her favourite brooches. Rings were made in the 30s, I think the brooches too, from what I remember she inherited them from her mum. I love them, they are colourful and add to every outfit. They are not gold or silver, but still in incredible condition after all this years. The jewellery in those times was way higher quality than today.
My grandparents had an identical set of corner shelves to the ones behind you. They called it the "Whatnot" bc it was used to display little decorative collectibles and whatnot ;)
Hahahaha that’s amazing! I basically display whatnots on there too 😂
I would love to have a whatnot at some point! Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her family's new whatnot in the 22nd chapter of "By The Shores Of Silver Lake".
I think "Mother's rings" might be a more modern version of that ring. They tend to be spendy, mine has natural marque' shaped stones. I have several cool chokers from the 60s, hopefully I will find someone who wants them because I don't wear them or the ring. Loved this video! It's fun to see what people wore in the past.
Is that the one where you have a birthstone for each kid?
What's a Mother's ring?
The hazelnut brooch is super cute, I absolutely love it!
That buckle ring is so cute, I'd never heard of those before! And I'm envious of your pearl fly, it's magnificent!
I've seen at least two historical watches and one cravat pin that are shaped like skulls, and The Met has a lot of late 18th century watch chains, but one of my favourites has little green jewels dangling from it, along with a tiny metal axe, and a tiny skull with a dish on top.
There are also some gorgeous 18th century rings with little pictures of ships in them.
You should look up the Victorian buckle rings! They’re quite similar and adorable too 🥰
All those pieces you mention sound amazing!
I'm not wearing jewellery that much (just my ear piercings and my nose ring but that isnt jewelery for me) but i absolutly love studying the little details and enjoying it being worn on other people (THAT hazelnut brooch made me scream because it is so adorable!). Great Video (as always)!
I love insect jewelry. My mother had a vintage bee pin with a purple stone for the body, very similar to your beetle pin.
Ok. Thank you because you sent me down several rabbit holes. This was fun.
A pointing hand is protection, and your flowers look like forget-me-nots, which were a common symbol of affection and friendship. A beetle is longevity, and a fly is humility. Ironically, insect jewellery was a symbol of wealth, although you are quite correct that jewellery was suddenly available to more of the masses. I found a wild, in-depth article about the multi-layered symbolism of cameos. Thanks for this. Can't wait for the fashion one. Keep 'em coming, lol
My wedding ring is based on an antique design. It's a gold snake with teeny rubies for eyes. Snake rings were popularised by Queen Victoria, as her engagement ring was a snake with a giant emerald on its head. Mine is definitely not that big! Just a little snek. 🐍
So cute! What a unique wedding ring to have too. Victorian snake jewellery is definitely fascinating 🥰
I love antique, vintage and modern jewelry and jewelry in general so much is fancy and glamorous and a social status symbol
If you want to try hair jewelry, check out decorative knotting. Same sort of technique.
Also wondering about mourning motifs used in jewelry and as funerary symbolism (tombstones)
Thanks so much! I’ll check it out 😊
One of my theses at university was on the semiology of hair. To that end the McCord Museum in Montreal opened their collection of Victorian hair jewelry to me. Just FYI after a number of years it smells like ginger and its consistency is almost like that of a rubber band.
How cool! Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to sniff my one example and see if it smells like ginger 😂
For some reason, I missed this video when it first came out but I am happy it came up in the YT suggestions. I learned so much once again! I love the beaded edwardian earrings you made, they turned out beautiful.
I love the hand broaches! They remind me of the ones worn by the hand of the king in Game of Thrones
from what i've read hair jewelrty was a trend amongst the upper class in the 1860s (as part of the Arts and Crafts movement), not to remember depated relatives but as a way to have a reminder of a close friend, just like the friendships bracelets of the 90s-2000s but with the friend's actual hair. Loepsie made a viedo a while back where she tried hairstyles from a 1860s manual, well, that manual was written by a "hair stylist and jewelry maker" (and it's not hair jewelry as in jewelry made for the hair, but jewelry made with hair) in theis manual you can thus not only find tutorials and engravings of several fashion and most becoming styles of the season, but also a wide array of hair jewelry provided by this jewelry as well as an engraving portraying the material he proposes to make such jewelry, the basics of how it is made and quite a few tutorials of hair jewelry you can mix and match to your needs (including a bracelet with a tartan pattern that requires 3 different shades of hair: brown, white and red, indicating it's very unlikely to be made from a deceased loved one)
Not quite correct. Locks of hair have been passed between lovers and close friends for centuries and the practice of making hair jewellery originated in France in the 1700s after wigmakers ran out of jobs and had to find something else to do thanks to the French Revolution. The real hair jewellery craze did start in the 1860s with the death of Prince Albert in 1861 when Queen Victoria famously went into a perpetual state of mourning. Hair jewellery was specifically was a big mourning trend for people of all social classes. It was something that was usually made by women at home, which is why these manuals existed in the first place. Of course hair jewellery was still often made as a sign of love or friendship, more often than not (especially in the Victorian era when there was no shortage of deceased loved ones) it was mourning jewellery.
@@AnneliesvanOverbeek thank you for the clarification, what about the bracelet that demands three shades of hair color? that one just looks llike a fashion thing without much meaning (i've also seen a documentary mentioning that white hair was the most prized type) which makes me belive it could have been something fashionable worn without much meaning to some degree?
@@TheGabygael I have seen one quite large hair wreath that was obviously made with several different hair colors/textures. The maker even included little hand written labels that indicated who the hair came from. There were at least a dozen different people. So this one couldn't have been a "mourning wreath." Some hair jewelry items were made from a deceased loved one's hair. I have a watch chain that was made from my great great grandmother's hair when she died.
The earrings you made are beautiful!
I love what you did with your hair. It's so super cute. You definitely have some fun pieces in your collection. I feel like i've seen the pink and cobalt blue cameo brooch before. I'm not one for much jewelry, but I do enjoy having some cute stuff when I go places. I hope you get your grape earrings. They sound like fun. See you in 3 weeks 💕
Thank you so much DesertRose! Well remembered, as I featured the cameo brooch briefly in a video probably a year ago 😅 see you in three weeks! 🥰
this was so cool!! thank you so much for sharing this!! i especially love the pearl grapes and the bug jewelery
I watched Lidia Poet last week and was captivated by her different insect jewelry. There was a dragonfly pendant, a beetle brooch, a pair of earrings that looked like house flies (but they may have been honey bees or something else), and a winged staff of some sort but the wings were obviously insect’s and not bird’s.
She also had some stunning outfits that made me think of you. 😍 And I found one of her hats was quite fetching.
This video made me think of that show as well!
@@lilacsunset3848 I think they have filmed a second season, but I have not heard of a release date. I may rewatch Season 1 soon.
chokers are so old, one could argue that anne boelyn's "B" necklace is a choker
Fun video Vasi, enjoyed it very much. I love the chunkiness of the cameo brooch, and think the cobalt blue and pink, with the gold, would look lovely on a pale summer dress, such as buttermilk, lavender or cream. Can’t choose a favourite piece, they are all adorable!
Thanks so much Bella! 🥰🥰🥰
love the weird and YOUR hairstyle is fabulous!
The amber piece is super cool. Reminds me of when I watched Jurassic Park for the first time as a kid haha!
The spiral fly pin was possibly a hair ornament.
The earrings you made are really pretty 🤩
Thanks for sharing your collection with us. It's neat to see the creativity of past generations.
I loved the look of the hazelnut jewelry
I love mouring jewelry, especially hair jewelry (I'm also a hairdresser). I plan to do my own versions with some of my loved ones as well.
That’s a wonderful idea. I believe I’ll do the same when my loved ones pass!
The grape earrings and necklace will be stunning!
I know it's not the point of these videos but that thumbail is truly stunning
Thank you!! Self-portraits are fun haha
Great video! Keep them coming. You explain things very well
Oh, wow, that uranium glass necklace! I knew that the dishware existed, but it never occurred to me that they might use the glass for jewelry as well :D
omg i love that buckle ring!!! i have one too but its modern and much wider. about 1/4 inch
I love the 1860 hair; I have a DEAREST broch; it looks like it's from Star Trek. I also have a jet bead necklace (I think it's a 20th-century item), and I used to have a beautiful jet mourning broach that I lost in a divorce.
Thank you!! ☺️
These antiques are so cool!
Just watched your year in review and you’ve accomplished quite a lot over the past two years. Your sewing has improved so much. Look what you’ve learned!! Amazing. Don’t be afraid of the sewing machine. You’ll be amazed how it can become an extension of yourself. I’ve learned so much from the closet historian here on UA-cam. You are on a wonderful journey. Brava!
Those earrings look lovely! Well done! The buckle bracelet is quite interesting, I like that it functions as a buckle versus being purely decorative.
Your appreciation for the unusual and surprising just fills me with warmth! Keep it up :)
Thank you so much, so kind! ❤️
Love the hazelnut brooch
Thank you for the illumination on the lovely unique Victorian & Georgian pieces.
Thank you! So glad you like them Catherine 🥰
@@VBirchwood 😀
lovely collection and the hazelnut is my absolute favourite, would love to get my hands on something like that
Hairwork Jewellery, Swedish ones from Northern part was common to be sold as jewellery not for mourning but for fashion and it ended up all over Europe. The Swedeish women's hair was seen as stronger and finer due to lack of population.
Some years ago I read a book by Stephanie Barron entitled Jane and the Wandering Eye, it featured an eye portrait. That was the first I had heard of such things.
1:51 my aunt used to work at a museum, apparently they had a big collection of hair jewelry, but it had a ton of lead and stuff in it :/
Cadmium in glass will also glow orange.
Yellow uranium glass is know as Vaseline because it looks like the early color of petroleum jelly. Old custard glass, opaque cream color has uranium and will also glow.
Several of the colored glasses were used in jewelry.
I loved the video!!! As you im fan of antique jewerlly from Colombia...really good video🥰😊
Awesome! Thank you! 😊
Thank you for sharing items from your personal collection!
Thanks for watching!
Great video ❤❤❤! Thank you!
The concept of speakeasy rave should be implemented somewhere
Thabk you for sharing these fascinating pieces
V, your skin is flawless…
Adore amber! Thanks for this, your collection is great!
So glad you enjoyed it 😊
Black Hills Gold Jewelry made in the Black Hills of South Dakota, features similar grape clusters and leaves. Still being made today.
I love your expertise and dedication! Subscribing.
Thank you. Very interesting.
Truly weird and wonderful! Also love your hairstyle!
Thank you so much 😀 1840s hairstyles are super weird and wonderful 😂
Love it ❤❤❤
…I love your style 💜
It would be nice to see these decorations on Vasilisa, but they are beautiful in their own right.
I'd love an acrostic ring, though the only website that makes them put mine at 1k, and that's a hell of a lot of money
I’d recommend looking for antique ones online as they can be much cheaper (on eBay)
@@VBirchwood Ohohoho. Time to scour ebay!
@@MoondustManwise The holidays will come early! 😂
The pearl fly!!
I love this series! It's reminded me to check your Instagram too.
Awww I’m so glad you love the series! It’s always a fun one 🥰
Thank you for sharing these wonderful pieces in your collection! I really love the big motif jewelry… so cute! I have a vintage butterfly broach that belonged to my grandma that I keep in a prominent place on my desk. I also am very taken with that little ant in your amber broach/brooch (idk- brain fog, lol). Now alls you need to do is get ahold of those Jurassic park doctors and resurrect him 🤪. Bet he’d have a lot to say. Take care
What an intriguing thumbnail!
This was so cool! Reminds me of all the things people are making into earrings I see on TikTok. Where do you find evidence of trends for Victorian jewelry? Like is there a specific source to look at?
Thank you! ❤️ it really is so similar to that lol.
I look at a lot of different sources. I tend to find certain motifs or objects again and again on eBay, in museum photos, portraits, film photographs, and antique magazines, and then usually it’ll spark my curiosity and I’ll go and research about the motif in a historical context. With the hazelnut brooch, for example, I couldn’t find anything online, so I thought it was a rare, probably not a trend type of piece. Then when I saw another one pop up on eBay, it became clear to me that it’s more likely these were more common than I originally suspected.
My family also has a collection of hair. They are all tied individually, and have labels with all the names of the "owners". The oldest is my great - great grandmother. Then her eldest daughter ( my great grandmother). Then her eldest daughter ( my grandmother), followed by my mother,( yes, the eldest daughter)! After that - yes, you guessed it - my hair ( eldest yet again). Last , but not least, my only daughters hair.
Since my daughter can't have children, due to heart issues, my mother deviated to add my sister and niece's hair as well.
We have many heirlooms that have been passed down in the same way ( eldest daughter to eldest daughter, and so on) but the most "valuable" to our family is the bag containing the hair. I'd always thought my nan was a red-head, however, I found out that she had beautiful, natural white-blonde hair, and dyed her hair red all her adult life!
Nearly all the hair is similar shades of blonde, until my daughter. She's a natural red head! My nan would be SO JEALOUS!!
As a result of our precious hair collection, I absolutely LOVE mourning jewellery made with hair.
Thanks!
the belt bracelet ❤
When you think about uranium glass jewelry, I have to presume the black light wasn’t invented yet. I now have to check this 🤔💡👍
8:12 - the spider / bug - my ex girlfriend had exactly that broach - she lost the pearl and we had to replace it...
Jewellery used to signal wealth seems like primitive behavior. Jewellery as fashion accessory or because of sentimental value is okay in my book.
I would say most of the pieces I feature in this video are not to signal wealth, especially since so many of them are later Victorian and costume jewellery (not super precious stones and not precious metal).
You look so beautiful, as usual. That hairstyle really does suit you. Thank you once again for a very informative vid.
Thank you so much!
Love your new jewelry.
Do "Parlour Pieces" of hair work interest you?
Hazelnut brooch- Victorian fidget toy!!
Absolutely - I totally need one! Odd, I didn't expect that to be my favorite but it is. Something about the seed preserved forever on the cusp of life (or something highfalutin' along those lines)...
Beaux objets d'art. Bonne présentation
Merci!
terrific
Not at all historical but on the subject of hair art, have a look at the contemporary artist, Loren Schwerd, who made sculptures/installations out of hair and hairpieces she found floating in floodwaters outside an African American beauty shop from one of the areas of New Orleans worst affected by Cyclone Katrina. The series is named 'Mourning Portraits" and consists of delicately woven portraits of the devastation. Even more than a decade later many residents are still homeless, not to speak of the thousands who died. The work was made with consciousness of morning traditions and is an interesting contemporary interpretation of morning jewelry.
8:40 All this section kept reminding me of Agitha (Zelda: Twilight Princess) 😅
Enjoyed your collection…
I just noticed that your hairline jumps up halfway through - so does mine! I hadn’t seen anyone else with a hairline like that except my grandmother until now 😃
I think your belt ring is 1960's - 1970's, I had a silver belt ring in the 70's that looked just like yours.
Sorry, I can't help but notice that there's something odd with the lighting, but I have no idea what it is 😂
I just do quite heavy depth of colour with the grading because I’m shooting into clog2 and I love stylised creative looks. Luckily colourgrading is subjective 😊 also if you have a blue light filtre etc on your electronics, it can greatly change the way the accurate colour looks.
@@VBirchwood oh I see! I see where you're going with the vibe, that's awesome ahaha 🤣
I personally think... For this grading, it needs a bit more of light-coloured things? It gives off a glowy-fairylike effect (?) around lighter things, and I notice that the lighting isn't very even on the lower part 5:30
But that's my personal thoughts and observations. I've been hyping the cinematograpy explorations on your last four videos, absolutely delightful! ✨
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, though! 😭
I have an antique family pin but it's so small, not sure how to display it well.
that fly broche, ist it for in you hair? you twist it in ... just thinking out loud, because i have never seen a broche that spins in to fabric
Like Sisi from Austria, she bejweled her hair with daimonds you twist in
Chokers go back millennia. The really interesting thing about Victorian jewelry is that there just wasn’t much jewelry before then. Europe has few raw materials, it took Colonialism to supply those. The new middle class could afford some jewelry; everybody below super wealthy was hustling for food and clothing before then. And even the wealthy wore paste because it was available.
Can you please make a video on men's historic fashion, ......
I’ve interviewed both the tailor Tom van het Hof and daily historical menswear wearer Vintagebursche on my channel 😊 I also recommend Vintagebursche’s channel for more info.
Any advice on how to tell amber from modern resin?
Amber will be quite light in weight, and it won’t be cold to the touch. You can also do a salt water test. Amber will emerge. Resin will most likely sink.
@@VBirchwood Thank you! Any further advice if the amber is mounted on jewelry?
that' where all the hand broches went!
Whoops 😬
Hello! I'm Linda from Regina,sask.canada. your a very knowledgable young lady and very interesting! Happy to find you girl! Your so interesting to watch! How long have you had this interest and do you think that maybe you lived a prior life in this era? Sorry to be so forward and to ask this question ❤. Maybe I'm just to forward,and you don't have to answer that ok because it's to out there!
Have you ever done a video on historical footwear? I wear 1860s for living histories and find the period footwear painful and end up cheating with modern shoes.
I haven’t no :) I have my go-to historical shoes usually and don’t own many pairs and just get them very regularly resoled
Are those pearls on the grape lot you have real?.
Nope!
How old does a piece of jewelry have to be before it's considered antique?🌺
That is the great debate! 😂 my personal cut off point is about 1920s or 30s. But different people will have different cut off points 😊
Those are some gorgeous victorian style nails you have 🙂
Thank you! Cheers!
I’ve been watching your videos for a few months now and one thing I noticed between male and female history lovers is men tend to learn about major historical events or war while for women it’s fashion and the life of the aristocracy in history, whether it be the Tudors, Edwardians , Victorians, etc and the whole “cottagecore” sub culture is almost entirely dominated by women who enjoy British / continental European cottages.
I only had to look at the historical objects I own to prove this... WW1 medals... an authentic war helmet. Maybe I’m wrong but it’s just my observation.
I’m actually a lot more into my ancestral and folk history to be honest, in addition to the practical aspects of the working class. Most of what I wear is working class clothing. The issue with both those things is that there’s so little research on it, that the way many people get into folk fashion and working class clothing is generally through the most researched fashion history (British aristocracy). If I could know everything about my ancestral fashion (Kazan Tatar) I would, but most of it has been lost so I spend tons of time just trying to piece together the missing history.
Not related but your face really reminds me of Nina Dobrev
I find the jewelry you show quite lovely. I personally can't wear jewelry because I have a metal allergy. I could probably wear a broach, but finding them is a bit challenging on a tight budget.
I think that you don't have to wear pink and cobalt blue together in order to wear the broach that you first showed. You can wear either color and it would look nice. Or even a contrasting color that pairs well with those two colors. Just my personal thoughts.
And lastly, I chose not to unsubscribe from your channel even though I don't agree with your views on certain things pertaining to modern culture due to my religious beliefs. I enjoy your work and like watching your videos because I like Victorian era fashion. I don't think that my participation in the channel should be limited to whether I agree with your personal political views or not. It has no bearing on the content of this channel, and it is the content of your videos that interests me. I agree to disagree on grounds of religion.
Pronounced "oat" couture not "HAUTE" couture its a french expression and the "H" is silent. FYI.
Whats' the objective of a video document?