Gold for Iron

With curves and curlicues like delicate traceries of black ink, Berlin ironwork jewellery is both pretty and dark with gothic edge.

This dramatic style came into being in the early nineteenth century, and was made by the Royal Prussian Iron Foundry from 1804. Intricate panels of scrollwork, foliage, Classical medallions and cameos, and the aforementioned Gothic designs were cast in very fine sand. These lacy pieces were then linked together and lacquered black (which helped to prevent rust).

During the Prussian War of Liberation in 1812–14, ladies were encouraged to give their gold ornaments to the war effort, and in exchange, were given iron. Some women had their pieces inscribed with “I gave gold for iron”. This unromantic metal was then melted down and cast into these filigree fancies. Such was the high quality of both design and casting that these pieces were in fact expensive, in spite of being made from base metal. Few original pieces have survived however, because of the brittleness of the iron and its susceptibility to rust.

(Left to right) Tiara, c1900, from barbaraanneshaircombblog.com; haircomb, 1820s, at the V&A Museum, London, from differentlondon.blogspot.com; drop earrings c1830, from www.graysantiques.com; a pair of bracelets (able to be linked together and worn as a choker), c1830, from www.georgianjewelry.com.

My enormous cross earrings are certainly not original (nor high quality), but neither are they lightweights, tiring out my earlobes. I suspect that the women wearing the originals a couple hundred years ago were made of sterner stuff than me. They were quite used to wearing metres of heavy fabric as well as umpteen petticoats, corsets, girdles, bustles – a little bit of iron clasped around their necks or wrists was not going to hold them back!