c.1730-40 Spanish Table & Rose Cut Diamond Necklace

A c. 1730-40 Spanish décolletage necklace, set with 167 table and rose cut diamonds in silver boxed settings, all against a filigree-worked body of solid 18k yellow gold, of a substantial scale and heft at 116.5 grams in weight. The deep décolletage was a prevailing feature of late Baroque and Rococo women’s fashion, with the necklace one of the most visually-dominant forms of adornment. The terminal D-shape loops were designed to hold a ribbon attachment, allowing the wearer to adjust the necklace length for a perfect fit. Period portraits show such ribbon extensions secured via large knotted bows at the nape, further enhancing its decorative function. An early 18th c necklace, similarly worked with table & rose cut diamonds in silver boxed settings, also featuring D-loops and three bow-shapes, is illustrated on 191 of Royal Jewels by Diana Scarisbrick et al. According to Daniela Masceti (p. 64, The Necklace: From Antiquity to the Present), continent-wide war and social unrest at the end of the 18th c meant that many larger-scale jewels were broken-up and sold piecemeal, explaining why comparatively fewer 18th c necklaces have survived in complete form.

The present necklace belongs to a broader group of jewelry made during the early 18th c that nonetheless retains late Baroque features popular since the late 17th c. The neat, geometric arrangements of table cuts in boxed bezels is a look that defined much of gem-set jewelry made since the late Renaissance with a few later modifications (such as the addition of ‘pie-crust’/scalloped trims after c.1650). While gold was the preferred setting material for diamonds prior to c.1650 and silver largely replaced gold for diamond bezeling after c.1750, it was common for jewels made between c. 1700-1750 to retain a ‘transitional’ mixed-metal look of both silver and gold. The discovery and opening of diamond mines at Minas Gerais in Brazil in 1723 contributed to both the supply and demand of all-diamond jewelry in Europe; Masceti writes that “throughout the [18th] century every woman of means aspired to the ownership of a diamond necklace” (p. 62, The Necklace). Silver augmented the cool-toned elegance of a diamond-encrusted piece, but as a metal it tarnishes easily and can discolor clothing or skin. A backing frame or mount in gold thus remained popular as a solution for this problem. For instance, a guild examination drawing by Juseph Pol, dated to 1728, features a pendant with table and rose cut diamonds in silver boxed/rub-over settings, but mounted against a broader frame of yellow gold (Llibres de Passanties Barcelona, Museo de Historia de la Cuidad). Like the present necklace, the 1728 Pol pendant is an early 18th c jewel with late Baroque features and silver-gold mixed-metal composition. An early 18th c dress jewel with similar features is in the State Historical Museum, Moscow (ОК 13383).

The gold filigree featured throughout the present necklace is another late Baroque inheritance. Spanish ‘filigraneros’ enjoyed a burst of popularity around c.1660-70, initially as devotional jewels housing enameled or painted plaques. By the early 18th c, a thicker and sturdier filigree can be seen in secular jewelry as well. A c.1740 pendant in the Museo Nacional de Artes Decoratives (inv I.548) features a yellow gold filigree frame with curvilinear swirls similar to that of the present necklace. Similar filigree can be seen on a pendant from La Divina Pastora de las Almas de Cantillana, precisely datable to 1730-40 due to its goldsmiths’ hallmarks. A bodice jewel and pendant with diamonds in silver boxed bezels against a yellow gold filigree body can also be seen in the c. 1760 portrait of Doña María de la Luz Padilla y Gómez de Cervantes by Miguel Cabrera (with the jewels likely predating the painting). An early 18th c Spanish colonial necklace of diamonds and silver filigree, of similar scale and form, is in the inventory archive of Michael Backman, London. In Spain, this particular type of swirling filigree seems to have been a brief trend of the 1730-40s, with relatively few surviving examples. Nonetheless, the overall design aesthetic of table cut diamonds in boxed or rub-over settings against a surround of gold filigree would survive well into the end of the 18th c in regional jewelry made in territories formerly belonging to the Spanish Netherlands (e.g. Belgium (Flemish), south Netherlands, parts of northern France), reflecting the enduring influence of Spanish design.
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