Art Deco Devant de cor­sage by Boucheron, designed by Lucien Hirtz. Image by Skin­ner Inc.

Dur­ing the 1920s, graphic designs de-throned the gar­land style of the courtly Edwar­dian era. Dresses with dropped waists and boy­ish sil­hou­ettes freed women from the hourglass-confines of the corset. Beaded fringe danced in jubi­la­tion at the bot­tom of a flapper’s skirt.

Art Deco offer­ings from Nel­son Rar­i­ties, www.nelsonrarities.com

Diamond-cutting tech­nol­ogy improved and cut­ters could now pro­duce finer, more var­ied and unusual stone shapes, thus giv­ing rise to emerald-, French-, and calibre-cut dia­monds. These shapes, as well as kite-, shield-, mar­quise– and baguette-cut became the lex­i­con of Art Deco jew­elry and would remain pop­u­lar well into the 1930s. By end of the 1920s, color was almost com­pletely absent. A brash yet com­plex mix of dia­mond geom­e­try came into play. It would not only define the period, but also set the bar for glam­our for­ever after. Jew­el­ers like Harry Win­ston, the first anointed king of the red car­pet, would owe much to the inge­nu­ity of the jew­el­ers and crafts­men of the the 1920s and 30s.

Plat­inum and dia­mond bracelet, circa 1930

In terms of how dia­monds were cut, Art Deco jew­elry reflected the advances of the machine age. Vic­to­rian dia­monds were hand-faceted and com­monly lump­ish, even ungainly, in appear­ance — naive char­ac­ter­is­tics now revered for their charm and unique qual­ity. Yet, with the advent of tech­nol­ogy came new ideals and bet­ter light­ing. The pro­por­tions of gem cut­ting would change dra­mat­i­cally so as to improve the bril­liance of a diamond.

Cartier Art Deco ruby, dia­mond and plat­inum ring

Stones today are pro­duced for max­i­mum carat weight as opposed to assist­ing with design aes­thet­ics. Dur­ing the Deco period inven­tive shapes were devel­oped with lit­tle regard for the mate­r­ial lost in cut­ting the stone to the desired sil­hou­ette. There was bullet-, French-, calibre-, emerald-, marquise-, crescent-, and half-moon-shapes — almost as many as the imag­i­na­tion could dream up. These dia­monds were inher­ent to design of the piece. Rings had nice full stones, like the emerald-cuts. Wide bracelets most com­monly fea­ture these exotic shapes and gave them their evoca­tive character.