Bourgeois Bling

This necklace belongs to one of Wilhelmina von Hallwyl’s most spectacular garnitures. This and the other of our garnitures that belonged to Wilhelmina and her mother, Johanna Kempe, are typical examples of the jewellery that was made during the early 19th century for the new, affluent bourgeoisie. The political and social situation had changed. Now it was no longer only the nobility that could wear garnitures, but also the ladies of the bourgeois class. Their jewellery often contained softer gemstones and less gold, which made them less expensive.

A necklace with pearls and Brazilian diamonds, together with a brooch in the same style, was given to Wilhelmina by her fiancé Walther on the day of the announcement of their engagement, 30th April 1865. Fifty-five years later, in 1920, Walther and Wilhelmina von Hallwyl donated their house at Hamngatan 4 in Stockholm to the Swedish state. The donation included the entire contents of the house, including two jewellery collections. One of these consists of collectors’ items whilst the other is the family’s personal jewellery. The diamond garniture is part of the personal collection.

When the men of the bourgeois class began to use jewellery, the design was adapted to reflect their needs as business leaders and officials. Pocket watches, watchchains, breastpins and cuff links became very common adornments throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The nobleman Walther von Hallwyl was originally a captain in the Swiss army before he took over his father-in-law’s company, Ljusne Woxna AB. He was given this breastpin by his wife as a Christmas gift in 1866.

This brooch is part of the first garniture owned by Wilhelmina. It was a gift from her parents on Christmas Eve 1862. It is made of gold with small oriental pearls and enamel. The set was purchased from a jeweller in Hamburg and lacks hallmarks. During the second half of the 18th century, laws were introduced that gave Sweden a unique standing in the world. Statutory hallmarks and stamps, such as the ‘cat’s foot’, year marking and the maker’s mark, guaranteed the authenticity of the piece. 

In 1846, the guild system was abolished, which had previously regulated who was able to work within certain trades. Industrialisation was picking up pace and new technologies had been invented. Measures to increase efficiency came to replace the knowledge-based traditions. Now, jewellery was being made in the largest quantities possible, with the minimum amount of gold. Gold was being rolled out to form large sheets which were then pressed and moulded into shape or stretched out into long threads. Johanna Kempe had just such a garniture of gold with two brooches and a pair of earrings. The brooches – one large and one small – were given separately to Johanna by her husband in 1853 and 1854. The smaller brooch has a broken clasp, which indicates that it was perhaps worn as a kind of pendant. The brooches consist of a knotted round moulding, the end of which has been flattened out and adorned with flowering creepers.

One of the most impressive garnitures in the Hallwyl collection was bequeathed by Johanna Kempe and consists of a bracelet, brooch, hairpins, locket and a pair of earrings in gold with large amethysts and small oriental pearls. The component parts of the garniture were purchased over a period of almost 10 years.

Included among Johanna’s jewellery is a relatively simple, but emotionally important, garniture comprising a bracelet, brooch and a pair of earrings. The stones, which are ordinary, different-coloured beach stones, were collected by Johanna herself from the beach at her parents’ farm Dybeck in Skåne. She’d spent her childhood summers there and returned as an adult with her own family. The bracelet was made by the goldsmith Gustaf Dahlgren in Malmö in 1863. The stones were cut into flat ovals with bevelled edges. All the stones were set à jour, which means that there is no gold behind them but, instead, only an enclosing rim. 

Cameo jewellery has been worn since ancient times and consistently reappears in jewellery art. Johanna Kempe owned a small gold garniture with cameos. Cameos can be made using several different materials, such as stone, lava, glass, porcelain or seashells. Johanna’s cameos were carved into a seashell, which is clearly visible from the convex shape. Seashells are the material that most closely resembles the more exclusive banded agates, but which are easier to find and work with and are, therefore, cheaper to produce.

Throughout the whole of the 19th century, jewellery art was dominated by Italian styles. In the north of Italy, for example, mosaic jewellery was made, which became very popular. The Venetian mosaic consisted of small pieces of glass, whilst the Florentine mosaic used different-coloured stones that had been cut to shape and set against a black base, which is called a Pietra Dura. Wilhelmina owned a complete set of Pietra Dura jewellery: bracelet, pendant, brooch with appendage and hairpins.