A bijou (plural: bijoux) from the French bijou (pl. bijoux) is an intricate jewellery piece incorporated into clothing, or worn by itself on the body.
A bijou (plural: bijoux) from the French bijou (pl. bijoux) is an intricate jewellery piece incorporated into clothing, or worn by itself on the body.
Besides its decorative function, a bijou serves as a signal for many other purposes. [1] These have varied over time and space, and really its perceived function is dictated by the wearer, not those who view it. Nevertheless, it is possible roughly to categorise: [2]
A bijou can be a mark of social status, and indicates whether the wearer is married, engaged, a debutante, and so forth. Traditionally, these kind of bijou have jade, or other black stone.
Bijoux can indicate the membership of some group, be it a religion, a profession, a political allegiance, one of ethnicity or sex, or allegiance to a sports team: as wristbands might do in other cultures. They are also used as purely identification symbols, for example the Companions of the Tour de France wear them as earrings to show their allegiance to a particular rider. In a crowd, it may thus distinguish them from others supporting other riders, depending on how dedicated each are to recognise the symbol.
Bijoux are often used for physical therapy, like amulets. Generally, a significant date is inscribed thereon, and perhaps their birth colour, or their astrological sign, a patron saint, or other magic symbols. They may also be used for fun in guessing-games.
The date, generally, is that of the birth of the wearer. A fish symbol, often called an Ichthys, indicates that the wearer is a Christian.
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A bijou can be used in daily life as various significands by the wearer, and can be put on scarves, capes, hats, handbags, and so on.
Bijoux are often given as a symbol of love, specifically to one person. It has a special meaning to the wearer, and similarly to that of an engagement ring, is displayed publicly and proudly. In French it is sometimes called a souvenir, but this is a false friend, souvenir being the infinitive for the verb "to remember".
Bijouterie, the art of making or wearing bijoux, has thus developed its own private language or rebus known only to the initiated. Symbols may be religious or allegorical (two hands intertwined, for example, indicate the love of two fools, like Romeo and Juliet); Pansies (French : fleurs de pensée, literally "Flowers of thought") indicate "I am thinking of you".
Sometimes the bijou will have, hidden under a clasp, a photograph of the lover-to-be, or a strand of their hair, or one of their baby teeth.
The bijou is usually given as a symbol of eternal love, and also its fragility: it can be easily broken, lost or discarded. Sometimes the gemstone is made of glass to emphasise this fragility and essential uselessness, such as those made by Foire de Beaucaire (Gard-France) in the 18th century (The name comes from the small cry made by the wearer when it was torn from her. [3] )
Baudelaire writes of the bijou's function thus in his novel Les Bijoux, as does Diderot in Les bijoux indiscrets . (Roughly, "The Indiscreet Jewels"). In both novels, the bijou serves as a symbol, like a pink carnation may do in English culture. It is worn by the wearer to show that she is available but must be wooed, before any touch, sight or smell, and is an erotic act of self-denial.
As a well-known symbol, this same object can still have various uses. Among others, it is a symbol of emancipation and a symbol of sexual equality, but most people in Western culture wear it as a sign of faithfulness, be it in marriage, religion, or society. Not to wear one is a statement in itself.
Body ornamentation predates that of writing. Some[ who? ] consider it as itself part of human evolution, and call it the Révolution Symbolique, the rise of Symbolic culture.
The oldest well-identified bijoux are some 45 pieces unearthed from Blombes, South Africa. [4] These perforated and styled bijoux have been dated to being 75,000 years old.
Beyond Africa, Yvette Taborin [5] has devoted her life to studying the use of language symbols in Europe. She divides her analysis of the first objects of interaction between people into two types: those that are simply to collect things, as hunter-gatherers do, and those that are deliberately made or modified to be ornaments. Taborin does not classify on which material or source these ornaments were made from.
Most paleoarcheology concentrates on remains of bodies themselves, such as fossils, or animal remains such as teeth. Taborin took a different tack, to investigate the remains of those around them. In doing so, she literally unearthed a whole new classification and understanding of our prehistoric ancestors, based on scientific evidence and statistics. For example, she established that the teeth used as ornaments in jewellery were not statistically correlated with the animals living thereabouts, neither browsers nor carnivores, so that they were specifically ornamental and not just "spare parts" after killing an animal to eat it.
Most ancient jewellery is of bone, ivory, antler or some soft stone (such as limestone or lignite). The diversity and manufacture of these pieces, then, indicates a significant development in human evolution, especially as it comes in such various forms (hairbands, placed in clothing, bracelets, anklets, and so forth).
In Europe, the Celtic people were foremost in their work in bijou and filigree; strapwork variations on the celtic cross are still popular today.
Once metal had become part of the human way of life, and particularly during the Iron Age, various techniques such as filigree and embossing. An enormous variety of objects, of the highest quality, have been found. Bijouterie flourished in the civilisations around the Mediterranean Basin, and slowly but surely, bijouitiers established a trade and business, passing on their knowledge through guilds and adapting their wares to the tastes of their clients and the fashion of the day.
The art of bijouterie was pretty much stable, over many centuries, and reserved and codified as a profession.
After the 1950s, three distinct strands of the art developed:
A parure , if made since the 18th century, should be an ensemble (assembly) of several bijoux:
Jewellery consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western perspective, the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For many centuries metal such as gold often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as glass, shells and other plant materials may be used.
A tiara is a jeweled head ornament. Its origins date back to ancient Iran, which was then adapted by Greco-Romans. In the late 18th century, the tiara came into fashion in Europe as a prestigious piece of jewelry to be worn by women at formal occasions. The basic shape of the modern tiara is a (semi-)circle, usually made of silver, gold or platinum, and richly decorated with precious stones, pearls or cameos.
A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word pendere and Old French word pendr, both of which translate to "to hang down". In modern French, pendant is the gerund form of pendre and also means "during". The extent to which the design of a pendant can be incorporated into an overall necklace makes it not always accurate to treat them as separate items.
A necklace is an article of jewellery that is worn around the neck. Necklaces may have been one of the earliest types of adornment worn by humans. They often serve ceremonial, religious, magical, or funerary purposes and are also used as symbols of wealth and status, given that they are commonly made of precious metals and stones.
A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a supportive function to hold other items of decoration, such as charms. Medical and identity information are marked on some bracelets, such as allergy bracelets, hospital patient-identification tags, and bracelet tags for newborn babies. Bracelets may be worn to signify a certain phenomenon, such as breast cancer awareness, or for religious/cultural purposes.
Cartier International SNC, or simply Cartier, is a French luxury goods conglomerate that designs, manufactures, distributes, and sells jewellery, leather goods, and watches. Founded by Louis-François Cartier (1819–1904) in Paris in 1847, the company remained under family control until 1964. The company is headquartered in Paris and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Cartier operates more than 200 stores in 125 countries, with three Temples in Paris, London, and New York.
A mangala sutra, or tali, is a necklace that the groom ties around the bride's neck in the Indian subcontinent, in a ceremony called Mangalya Dharanam within a Hindu wedding. The necklace serves as a visual marker of status as a married Hindu woman.
A parure is a set of various items of matching jewelry, which rose to popularity in early 19th-century Europe.
A ring is a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry. The term "ring" by itself always denotes jewellery worn on the finger; when worn as an ornament elsewhere, the body part is specified within the term, e.g., earrings, neck rings, arm rings, and toe rings. Rings always fit snugly around or in the part of the body they ornament, so bands worn loosely, like a bracelet, are not rings. Rings may be made of almost any hard material: wood, bone, stone, metal, glass, gemstone or plastic. They may be set with gemstones or with other types of stone or glass.
Chaumet is a French luxury jewellery and watch house based in Paris.
Marie-Étienne Nitot was a French jeweller, the official jeweller to the Emperor Napoleon, and the founder of the House of Chaumet.
Queen Elizabeth II owned a historic collection of jewels – some as monarch and others as a private individual. They are separate from the gems and jewels of the Royal Collection, and from the coronation and state regalia that make up the Crown Jewels.
Edenly is a Switzerland-based company that sells jewellery. It was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The company is a player in the diamond and gold jewelry segments.
Diana, Princess of Wales, owned a collection of jewels both as a member of the British royal family and as a private individual. These were separate from the coronation and state regalia of the crown jewels. Most of her jewels were either presents from foreign royalty, on loan from Queen Elizabeth II, wedding presents, purchased by Diana herself, or heirlooms belonging to the Spencer family.
Hanfu accessories refers to the various form of fashion accessories and self-adornments used and worn with hanfu throughout Chinese history. Hanfu consists of many forms of miscellaneous accessories, such as jewelries, yaopei, ribbons, shawls, scarves, and hand-held accessories, etc.
A Boule de Genève is a type of pendant watch in the shape of a small ball or sphere originating from Geneva, (Switzerland). The dial is usually at the bottom of the sphere facing the floor, at the opposite side of the jump ring on the upper part of the sphere. Although there are examples with a front view face. Usually, they were arabic numeral dials, sometimes Roman, and from the 1950s different types of hour markers were also used. This objet de vertu frequently came with a matching brooch, chain or chatelaine.
The Swedish royal family owns a historic collection of jewels – some owned by the Bernadotte family foundation and others by private individuals. They are separate from the state regalia of Sweden which is owned by the Swedish state.
Jewelleryof the Berber cultures is a historical style of traditional jewellery that was worn by women mainly in rural areas of the Maghreb region in North Africa and inhabited by indigenous Berber people. Following long social and cultural traditions, Berber or other silversmiths in Morocco, Algeria and neighbouring countries created intricate jewellery with distinct regional variations. In many towns and cities, there were Jewish silversmiths, who produced both jewellery in specific Berber styles as well as in other styles, adapting to changing techniques and artistic innovations.
Khit er rouh, also known as Zerouf, is a type of Algerian diadem or headband made up of nineteen carved chatons linked together by rings, forming rosettes or rosaces and zerraref pendeloques made of gold set with diamonds or other precious stones. It is worn across the forehead with traditional outfits like the Karakou, where it is worn with a pair of earrings encrusted with tiny gemstones and several strands of baroque pearls. This Algerian accessory was inscribed in 2012 in the UNESCO, as an Intangible Heritage Of Humanity, along with The Algerian Kaftan and Chedda Of Tlemcen.
The National Jewellery Museum, in French Musée national de la Parure, of Morocco is an ethnographic museum, located in the former Musée des Oudayas in the country's capital Rabat. Along with the Kasbah of the Udayas, the museum's buildings and Andalusian-inspired gardens are part of UNESCO's World Heritage sites in Rabat. Opened to the public in January 2023, the museum attracted 40,000 visitors during the first week.
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