Eleven piece parure

Hunt & Roskell

ca. 1875 · Shakudo, gold · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The opening of Japanese ports to Western trade in the late 1850s fostered a taste for all things Japanese. By the 1870s, Japonisme had become as de rigeur in jewelry as it was in ceramics, silver, furnishings, fashion, and gardens. Especially admired was shakudo, a technique in which colored metals such as gold, silver, and copper are inlaid into a dark patinated ground to resemble black lacquer. The present parure of matched jewelry appears to have been constructed in England from imported pieces of shakudo. This extensive and very fashionable suite is housed in a specially-fitted leather case stamped by the elite London firm Hunt & Roskell, silversmiths and jewelers to Queen Victoria.

Artist

Hunt & Roskell

Date

ca. 1875

Medium

Shakudo, gold

Culture

British

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Albion Art Co. Ltd., 2018