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Napoleonic Era cut steel bracelet of navette shaped links c.1810

This earlier period of steel is notable for the facetted studs being rivetted on a steel backplate, the connectors being steel split rings and the tongue to the clasp being a pure sheet of polished steel.

The exact navette links in this bracelet can be seen in the parure in the Met Collection, New York.

6.5 inches length.

A craze for cut steel jewels and 'toys'(buckles, chatelaines, buttons, sword hilts) swept Europe at the end of the c18th utilising tiny pieces of steel, facetted and highly polished to imitate the scintillation of diamonds especially by candlelight.

So expensive and fashionable was steel at this time that Catherine the Great, Empress Josephine and Queen Charlotte were all presented with parures.

Mathew Boulton and Josiah Wedgewood the leading manufacturers of the day both utilised cut steel to great effect.

Cut Steel Bracelet c.1810

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