Prior to the Art Nouveau era, jewelry designs of the Victorian and Edwardian period are dominated by lacy, delicate openwork, knife-edged and milegrained settings and usually dominated by faceted stones and pearls. This style was marked by garland-style designs such as wreaths, leaves, ribbons and bows, flower baskets and floral designs. Sometimes celestial designs of stars, crescents were used along with small-scale figurals. Art Nouveau designs (1890-1915) generally centered on a poetic interpretation of nature where Art Deco (1910-1930) refers to a style of geometric lines and bold colors with machine-age design, zig-zag patterns and parallel lines. Deco also included use of speed motif in animal figurals such as gazelles and leopards. Also popular were Egyptian motifs, pave' settings and carved/engraved stones. The era referred to as Art Moderne (1935-1945) focused on the art trend of combining phenolics with modern metals such as Bakelite and chromium. There is liberal overlap of time frames for these periods and the items listed in this category generally fall in the 1890-1930 era.
