Plaster cast

Beginning in the Nineteenth Century and continuing well into the Twentieth, plaster casts of jewellery were kept as a three-dimensional record for the manufacturer of each piece of jewellery they made. Only a small proportion of the number that must have been made survive. The annotations on them, although often only partially legible, make clear their position at the centre of the design and manufacturing process - as an archival record but also as a source of ideas for subsequent designs. In this case the cast has been taken before the stones were mounted into their settings, giving a clear view of the intricate metal structure which forms the basis of the piece but which would be almost c

Plaster cast · Paris · ca. 1930. Cast plaster. By Unknown. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.