What do you know about jewelry?

All collages I created by using yasurs. If you like one piece of the shown clothing parts, accessories or shoes, you get the relevant source of supply (at yasurs) with a click on the appropriate image.
Did you know that:
--the earliest known jewelry is 100,000 years old?
--during many wars precious metals were in short demand and jewelry was made of alternative materials?
--the Victorians mounted hummingbird heads as jewelry? And Brazilian beetles?
--many cultures wear jewelry to ward off evil spirits?
--the famed jewelry firm of Cartier bought the townhouse where their headquarters is located in New York City by trading the owner for an incredible necklace of natural pearls? (Natural pearls are rare today since cultured pearls arrived on the scene circa 1900.)
--that diamonds can naturally be found in many colors?
--that in earlier times men wore more jewelry than women?
--that Harry Winston mailed the famed Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institute by U.S. Mail? And that it was walked to the White House in a gentleman’s pants pocket for the Shah of Iran to see?

These fascinating facts are just a very small part of what you might learn if you study the history of jewelry. We view jewelry studies as a "window" into the history of the world and a fun way to learn about our own and other cultures.
Jewelry is not only a form of adornment and self-expression, it is a part of one's family history, and a form of portable wealth. Its ownership is intricately involved in our lives.
And anyone can join in learning...it doesn't take a lot of specialized knowledge to understand this fascinating subject. If you are interested in fashion, world events, anthropology, art, archaeology—any number of subjects—you can relate to learning about jewelry.
Our personal jewelry does many things—represents the happiest and sometimes the saddest moments in our lives, can signal our achievements, tell others where we went to college, indicates our religious beliefs, and can even relay our sense of fun. It can tell others, without a word, how we view ourselves.
It is so universal that if two women who don't know each other stand in an elevator one may comment on the other's jewelry.