Stunning cut steel bracelet of lozenge shaped panels c.1810.
This earlier period of steel is notable for the facetted studs being rivetted on a steel backplate and the tongue to the clasp being a pure sheet of polished steel.
7 by 2 inches.
A craze for cut steel jewels and 'toys'(buckles, chatelaines, buttons) 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.