Fascinating Fridays (Jewellery Terminology; The Necklace)

Friday again. I am off on a weekend away today so I will only be posting again on Sunday if my plans work out efficiently. It always pains me when my technological limitations bars me from posting as much as I'd like. In any case here we are with Fascinating Fridays.

Today is a continuance from last week's glamorous "lecture'' on jewellery terminology. The necklace as we all know is the general term for jewellery worn around the neck but there are many subdivisions describing various specific forms of necklace. 

First up we have the one that sits the highest up on the neck, the Choker.

Here, the Dowager Countess Cartwright wears the earrings and choker from the Cartwright Aquamarine Parure without its matching tiara. 

Variations of chokers also exist. Firstly one finds a choker with a drop pendant. A pendant is a singular piece of jewellery and is often separate, by itself and can be worn on a chain. Other times pendants are permanently attached to a larger piece. 

The Draculesti Emerald Parure worn by the Princess of Wallachia, includes a choker with a diamond pendant suspended from the front center.

Another elaborate form of choker has numerous dangling pendants and festoons. A festoon is a draped chain of metal links, pearls or stone settings. These elaborate chokers are often called "De Resille" necklaces which means "net", referring to the amounts of pendants and festoons resembling a net. 

Empress Crystobel wearing her "De Resille" choker from her Birthday Diamond Parure.

The necklaces that sit slightly lower than a choker but happens to be of a more solid  and parallel design are called Collars. 

The Duchess of Aragon currently owns the famous Van der Bilt Diamond Collar. 

Similar to the so called Fringe Tiaras one also gets Fringe Necklaces. These look a lot like their headpiece counterparts as the photos will easily show. Often fringe tiaras and necklaces are one in the same piece just worn either on the neck or mounted on a frame for the head. 

The Draculesti Fringe Tiara and matching Fringe Necklace.

Pendant Necklaces like their name suggests have dangling pendant hanging from either a choker, collar or standard length necklace. Many combinations are possible so we will show a couple examples.

The Hispanian Shard of Dusk Diamond Necklace consists of the large brown "Shard of Dusk" Diamond set as a pendant suspended from a pearl necklace. 

The D' Pont du Lac Aquamarine Parure includes a large necklace with several pendants of which the front center is a massive pearl. 

Strand Necklaces are the simplest form of neck ornamentation and normally just consists of pearls or diamonds strung in a single line comfortably around the neck. Extremely long strands are often called "Opera Length" strands. 

Princess Augusta wears a simple strand of pearls to focus the attention on her tiara. 

Here Lady Arcwhite wears a simple strand of pearls and diamonds, again the focus is placed on the tiara. 

The Crown Princess Imperial wears an "Opera Length" strand of black pearls and pendant cross. She also wears a choker and bandeau kokoshnik tiara. 

A very revolutionary form of design in necklaces can be seen when they are designed on purpose to be A-simetrical. There isn't a specific term to designate this category so we will just dub them A-symmetrical Necklaces. 

The whole Comet Parure is of an A-symmetrical design.

The Van der Bilt Diamond is suspended from an A-symmetrical necklace. Princess Xenia in the background wears her fringe tiara and a diamond collar.

Often necklaces combine various of the above mentioned elements in a constant pursuit of fresh ideas. Hopefully today's post will help us to appreciate all these elements as they are employed to bedazzle us with beauty and majesty.