Mastery of Design: A Georgian Trembler, c. 1770.

This and all related images from The British Museum.

Thought to have been made in Italy, this aigrette (an ornament simulating the feathers of an egret , often worn on a turban or hat) dates to circa 1770.  It is made in the form of crescent with a trembler spray of flowers of silver and gold with a closed-back and set with diamonds of assorted cuts and sizes.  

Such an ornament, with its moving pendant drops, would have been quite the thing in the Seventeenth Century when jewelry design leaned toward the Naturalistic and jewelers looked for new ways to create a sense of motion with their work.  This fashion would be resurrected in the mid-Victorian period.

This is one of three such Georgian pieces which were given to the V&A as part of the Hull-Grundy Gift of 1978.

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