A Victorian gold Holbeinesque garnet and chrysolite jewel, circa 1870, later adapted to a brooch, centred with a garnet cabochon, collet set and decorated with polychrome champlevé enamelled flowerheads, the border spaced by square/cushion-cut chrysolites, the reverse engraved with flowers and foliate and enclosing a central glazed locket compartment, the jewel later mounted as a brooch, with added gold border to the reverse applied with pin fitting and safety chain, length 73mm x width 28.5mm. £1600-2000

The earliest mention of Holbein, with reference to a description of nineteenth century jewellery, appears at the 1851 London Exhibition, when a piece shown by the London jeweller Rowlands is described in the Illustrated London News as ‘Holbein’ although at this stage the actual connection with the style of the artist is not at all clear. The jewellers Hancocks continued the development of the neo-renaissance theme with their first major suite of ‘Holbeinesque’ jewellery, the Devonshire parure, commissioned in 1856 by the 6th Duke of Devonshire for his nephew’s wife, Marie, Countess Granville, to wear in Moscow at the coronation of Alexander II of Russia.

By the 1860s, the term ‘Holbeinesque’ came to characterise opulent jewels in the increasing fashionable neo-renaissance style, designed by leading jewellers including John Brogden and his fellow worker Carlo Guiliano, in part drawing inspiration from the art of Hans Holbein the Younger and from the jewellery depicted in Holbein’s portraits of the ladies of Henry VIII’s court, thereby creating what was to become a characteristically English style by virtue of the ‘Holbein’ connotation. By the 1870s, with Royal patronage both in Britain and abroad, (the term ‘Holbein’ appears a number of times in the ledgers of the Royal jewellers’ Garrards’), the style had become a highly popular line with the top Bond Street retailers.

A typical ‘Holbeinesque’ pendant was characterised by a large central gemstone mounted in gold within a richly coloured enamel work border incorporating diamonds or chrysolites and a lozenge-shaped pearl or gem set pendant drop below.

See: Gere, C. and Rudoe, J., Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A mirror to the world, British Museum Press, 2010, pages 344-350.