Ralph Huntington Blanchard

The Grand Tour—an educational and experiential venture taken by young European aristocrats in the 1700s and 1800s—provided ample opportunities for collecting. The objects in this case were produced for and purchased by travelers.

Made of small pieces of glass, micromosaics in all sizes—from tabletops to jewelry—were prized for their colorful and intricate depictions, often of famous Roman sites. Mosaic jewelry also took on the form of pietra dura (hard stone), the decorative inlay of semiprecious polished stones, often in a dark ground, as seen on the floral brooch.

Archeological discoveries inspired design, including the brooch and earrings at left, featuring scarab beetles like those in ancient Egyptian art. As visitors to Italy flocked to archaeological sites at Pompeii and Herculaneum, artisans capitalized on their excitement by producing lava jewelry.

In addition to Europe, Egypt was also a popular destination. Ralph Huntington Blanchard was an  American collector and dealer of antiquities in Cairo, where he ran Blanchard’s Egyptian Museum. The museum was in fact a shop that sold both ancient objects and new jewelry pieces that Blanchard designed and had produced utilizing ancient fragments. The brooch above, in the form of a stylized lotus flower, features ancient blue beads in a new gold frame. It is said to have been a copy of an ancient pin that was found in the tomb of Queen Tiye.