Necklaces & Pendants
Though lately necklaces seem to abound as stand alone (that is without pendants), the venerable tradition of necklaces is always about its pendants. If tradition were to fill it, necklaces were conceptualized because of pendants.
In ancient times, it was common belief that when people equipped objects acquired honorably from other sources, e.g. like a tooth from a ferocious tiger, a claw of a massive bear, or a tail feather from a hawk, they magically gain the properties that are inherent of such animals, or sources. Since totemism requires that these objects are kept in close proximity, in skin contact preferably, necklaces are borne out of need to fasten these first pendants. These are amulets, talismans, and charms, strung on rawhide necklaces & pendants that are supposed to bring good lick and fortune, ward off evil spirits, and endow the wearer magical properties.
Come in the middle century, pendants became a fashion trend as people realize of precious elements like gold, diamonds, silver and yes, even iron (as iron by this time was yet). In fact, even in early periods, as far back as 5 BC, iron necklaces are used to distinguish the office of honorary people. Since technology to cut stones weren’t to surface until late 1500, diamonds are rather unheard of. The quality necklaces & pendants of the time of Etruscan to the Romans to the Byzantine where mostly made of heavy gold, sometimes covering the entire upper torso as seen on some Egyptian necklaces & pendants.
Around 1600, the technique to cut gemstones was realized and soon the best thing before gold is these precious stones. Strung on gold chains, gemstones such as ruby and emerald and diamonds are most coveted price any lady can receive. Even the High Ecclesiastical unsuccessfully tried to cure his raging sickness with a diamond, which by this time was widely thought to contain magical properties due to it magnificent refractive properties. Court ladies and gentlemen wear these diamond necklaces to show wealth, power and influence. Aside from a few subtle differences, these necklaces & pendants resemble very much the jewelry of today.
Today’s minute engineering allowed more details that the necklaces themselves could already function as jewelry. Now, its common to see gold necklaces that don’t have pendants while it is also getting more common to see necklaces that have all these and a few more besides. The Bling-bling jewelry for instance, has both decorative chain plus an over pompous pendant, though other bling do feature only a simple chain. The Bling jewelry seem to be a derivative from the Pave setting of jewelry, where the entire piece of the jewelry is covered with diamonds (hence is called “Pave” though the root was claimed to be French).
Another example is the Mokume Gane necklace. These necklaces are very unique and are highly sought in the international jewelry market. It is derived from a Japanese metal crafting technique, would translate as “wood grain”. If you examine the gold closely, you would notice that it indeed looks like it has grain.
Surprisingly this is an ancient metal crafting technique mastered by only a few. First used during Feudal Japan in the Akita Prefecture, this technique uses several metals, merging them incompletely so that when formed, they make patterns (grains) on the metal. Mokume Gane is usually a gold necklace, though its price can be several times higher than conventional top class gold.
Necklaces & pendants experience its massive resurgence with the movie Titanic, specifically with the Heart of the Ocean, a jewelry influenced largely by the Hope Diamond. After the movie’s release in 1998, jewelers experience rising sales and request of necklaces & pendants that resemble this much coveted jewelry.