jewellery

JEWELLERY

Jewellery, personal adornment, has been worn by people of all cultures, as ornaments, as badges of social or official rank, and as emblems of religious or other belief since ancient times. In addition, much present knowledge of jewellery is derived from the preservation of personal objects in tombs. Information about the jewellery of cultures in which objects of value were not buried with the dead comes from portraits in surviving painting and sculpture. In its widest sense the term jewellery encompasses objects made of many kinds of organic and inorganic materials such as hair, feathers, leather, scales, bones, shells, wood, ceramics, metals, and minerals. More narrowly, and as used here, jewellery refers to mounted precious or semi-precious stones and to objects made of valuable or attractive metals such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, and brass. Furthermore, jewellery has been worn on the head as crowns, diadems, tiaras, aigrettes, hairpins, hat ornaments, earrings, nose rings, earplugs, and lip rings; on the neck as collars, necklaces, and pendants; on the breast as pectorals, brooches, clasps, and buttons; on the limbs as rings, bracelets, armlets, and anklets; and at the waist as belts and girdles, with pendants such as chatelaines, scent cases, and rosaries.

Technocrati Tag Jewellery

Key words: Jewellery, ornament, precious, valuable