1714 - 1837

This refers to the period that includes the reigns of George I - William IV and also includes the sub period of The Regency, which began in 1811, when George IV became the regent in place of his father, George III, who had fallen ill.

Georgian jewellery, therefore, saw many different styles and was mainly based around floral and natural studies. The general trend was for settings, which were usually silver, to be left plain with fabulous old cut diamonds and 'old mine' gemstones as the centrepieces replicating the flowers they were to represent.

During the late Georgian period, the early 19th Century, fashions changed and, although naturalism was still a regular subject matter, neo-classicism also featured due to the influence of Napolean. Subjects such as mythological deities were often seen and hardstone and shell cameos became popular.

In the 1830s, there was a move to showing sentimentality and there were a number of pieces that spelt out a message in gemstones, such as 'regard' or 'love'. By this time, gold had begun to be the metal of choice and the heavy closed back silver mounts popular earlier in the period had given way to light open backed gold mounts.

Stones used: Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, peridots, turquoise.