Arts & Crafts
JewelryWiki Editorial·1 source·Reviewed 2026-08-04
A movement founded on unease with the industrial world, which rejected the faceted stone along with the factory.
Properties
| Property | Value | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | Developing in the last years of the 19th century [1] | — |
| Named for | The Arts and Crafts movement, and its argument that hand-making improves the maker. [1] | — |
| Defining traits | Based on a profound unease with the industrialised world. Its jewellers rejected the machine-led factory system — by then the source of most affordable pieces — and focused on hand-crafting individual jewels, believing the process would improve the soul of the workman as well as the design. Repetition and regularity were replaced by curving or figurative designs, often with symbolic meaning. [1] | — |
| Characteristic stones and metals | Large faceted stones were avoided. Arts & Crafts jewellers relied instead on the natural beauty of cabochon — shaped and polished — gems. [1] | — |
| What to watch for | The cabochon preference is the quickest identifier, and it inverts the usual assumption that faceting signals quality. A large faceted stone in an ostensibly Arts & Crafts piece is a reason to look harder, not a mark of a better example. [1] | — |
Sources
- V&A — A history of jewellery — Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A, A history of jewellery)