River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-01-16
BRACELETS IN HISTORY.
One of the First and Most Popular Form
of Human Adornment.


of Human Adornment.
The history of the bracelet is chap
ter of the history of coquetry. 1t is one
of the most ancient of jewels. Among
the Israelites the gold bracelet was used
alike by the two sexes; when Juda en-
counters Thamar the latter asks in ex-
change of favors his staff, his ring and
his bracelet. When Saul had persisted
by his own sword warrior dispoils him
of the bracelets with which his arms
were covered. "For the construction of
the tabernacle" it is said in Exodus,
both men and women offered their jew
elry, among which were quantities of
rich bracelets"
The Greeks and Romans also wore
bacelets. After time the latter abb
stained from wearing them daily; they
were conferred as mark of distinction,
as a souvenir of some great act, and the
possessor guarded them consequently as
glorious decorations, and contented him
self with suspending them upon his
breast on days of ceremony and tri-
umph, in the same manner as a General
to-day wears his orders and insignias.
In this manner the bracelet became the
insignia of the warrior. The plebeian
classes, dancing girls and others, wore
them around the wrists and ankles.
The Gauls were also great lovers of the
bracelet. At Pont-Audemer is to be
seen magnificent gold bijou of this
kind, very finely worked. 1t is attrib-
uted to the first part of the reign of the
Merovingians.
At the commencement of the sixth
century no trace is found of the bracelet
in France. A revolution has been
effected in wearing apparel as well as in
morals. Ladies' wrists are ornamented
with large, colored silk cuffs, EN-
broidered with gold and pearls. This
fashion ends with the Carlovingians.
When was the time that fashions pre-
vailed longer than one dynasty? Later
on, ladies wore tight and buttoned
sleeves, terminating at the wrist; in the
twelfth century, Jean de Garlande speci-
fies the works made by goldsmiths-
hanaps large cups Of gold and silver,
necklaces, pins, knots and rings, but
nothing is said of bracelets. Finally,
''manacles" were used; they were sort
of bracelet composed of piece of stuff
upon which jewels we're sewn, until
finally, in the last half of the fourteenth
century, the true metal bracelet APP
peared. 1t seems that it was worn by
gentlemen, although secretly, as kind
of vow, a badge of servitude which they
pledged to the lady of their thoughts.
The history of Jehan de Saintre,
Chamberlain of King Charles VI, and
~ 4 l. .I0o hAa
witness to this. When Jehan de Saintre
vows eternal fidelity to his lady, She de-
mands of him to constantly wear an
emblem of attachment. ''On the first
day of May, which will be tomorrow,
she tells him, you will place a gold
bracelet of some kind or other on your
left arm, and wear it for a year" Next
day he comes with the bracelet which
he is to wear, and the lady herself puts
it on From about that time this piece
Of iewelry has been called bracelet"
From about the middle of the fifteenth
century the bracelet became distinctive
piece of ornament among the French
ladies'. At the time of the 'Dlrectoire,"
the women who had adopted the fashion
of wearing a robe la Romaine orna-
mented their arms with six bracelets,
three on each arm-one high up, an
other above the elbow, the third at the
wrist. This is not all, however; they
also wore rings on all their fingers, in
GLIDING the thumb; encircled their waist
with large sheet as belt, and wore
large hoops in their ears.
About 1880 bracelets assumed great
importance, and ranked even with liter
allure and painting: in other words, they
became romantic" Although it may
appear rather bombastic TO assign so
high place to piece of jewelry, never
theless, nothing will qualify so well
the artistic tendencies in this direction
of the goldsmiths of that epoch. Brace
lets appeared on the arms of ladies,
composed entirely of pointed arches, in
the midst of which ironclad warriors
kept watch and ward. 1t is easy to inn
agine the enthusiasm with which they
were received, being so we'll in keeping
with the tendency of the people
At present, finally, the fancy and
caprice of the day dictate to the jeweler
the shape, either new or copied from
former ages, to be given to the bracelets;
sometimes a serpent twisting itself
around the wrist, gold hoops with a long
Jewel, chain, etc. The shapes vary to
the infinite at present, and many of
them are due to the ingenuity of our
jewelry designs. Circular.