Jewellery

Jewellery (Jewelry in American English) is literally any piece of fine material used to adorn one's self. The word jewellery is derived from the word jewel, which was anglicised from the Old French "jouel" in around the 13th century. Further tracing leads back to the Latin word "jocale", meaning plaything.

Jewellery has probably been around since the dawn of man; indeed, recently found 100,000 year-old Nassarius shells that were made into beads are thought to be the oldest known jewellery. Although in earlier times jewellery was created for more practical uses, such as pinning clothes together, in recent times it has been used almost exclusively for decoration. The first pieces of jewellery were made from natural materials, such as bone and animal teeth, shell, wood and carved stone. Jewellery was often made for people of high importance to show their status and in many cases, they were buried with it.

Jewellery is made out of almost every material known and has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings and many more types of jewellery. While high-quality and artistic pieces are made with gemstones and precious metals, less costly costume jewellery is made from less valuable materials and is mass-produced.

Form and function

Kenyan man wearing tribal beads.Over time, jewellery has been used for a number of reasons:

functional use (such as clasps, pins, and buckles)

symbolism (to show membership or status)

protection (in the form of amulets and magical wards), and

artistic display

Most cultures have at some point had a practice of keeping large amounts of wealth stored in the form of jewellery. Numerous cultures move wedding dowries in the form of jewelry, or create jewelry as a means to store or display coins. Alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good; a particularly poignant example being the use of slave beads

Functional use dates back to the earliest days of jewellery; indeed, many items of jewelry, such as brooches and buckles originated as purely functional items, became more decorated over time, and in some cases became purely art objects as their functional requirement disappeared.

Jewellery can also be symbolic of group membership, as in the case of the Christian crucifix or Jewish Star of David, or status, as in the case of chains of office, or the Western practice of married people wearing a wedding ring.

Wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection or ward off evil is nearly universal; these may take the form of symbols (such as the ankh), stones, plants, animals, body parts (such as the Khamsa), or glyphs (such as stylized versions of the Throne Verse in Islamic art).

Although artistic display has clearly been a function of jewellery from the very beginnings, the other roles described above tended to take primacy. It was only in the late 19th century, with the work of such masters as Peter Carl Fabergù and Renù Lalique, that art began to take primacy over function and wealth. This trend has continued into modern times, expanded upon by artists such as Robert Lee Morris.

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