Why Was Platinum A Game-Changer For Luxury Brooch Design?

The art of brooches is built around making the most of the finest luxury materials with the help of extremely skilled brooch designers.

The distinction is that a rare metal is not merely used for its own sake but their exceptionally unique properties and capabilities are used to create designs previously believed to be impossible or at least highly difficult to achieve.

In some senses, this has been true since the fibula era of brooches; gold was a commonly used material not just because it was rare, valuable and beautiful, but because it was relatively easy to mould and manipulate before high-temperature smelting and blacksmithing was common.

However, one of the biggest revolutions in brooch design came with the use of platinum, which unlike gold has an extremely high melting point.

It is a rare metal, does not spoil and its silver-white sheen was not only gorgeous in its own right but paired well with other precious metals and precious stones.

However, the biggest way in which it changed brooch design is that it allowed for a level of intricacy and delicacy that gold and silver were not really strong enough to accomplish, and this in turn kickstarted the Edwardian era of brooch design.

From King Edward VII’s belated ascension to the throne in 1901 up until he died in 1910, with some designs being dated as late as 1914, the Edwardian era of brooches was designed around a contradictory balance of delicate appearance and robust strength.

This allowed platinum to be shaped like silk and lace, taking advantage of the metal’s inherent strength and the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution to create ornate filigree.

These were complemented with diamonds, pearls and coloured gemstones, either to create an icy opulence or the presence of a beautiful heart amongst silver leaves and lacework.

It would also open the door not only to this idealised era of jewellery but also signpost a future shaped by modernism and Art Deco.