Bracelets — through the ages. History of decoration.

For thou­sands of years, women and men have cho­sen jew­el­ry as a way of express­ing them­selves or belong­ing to a par­tic­u­lar social class.

For thou­sands of years, women and men have cho­sen jew­el­ry as a way of express­ing them­selves or belong­ing to a par­tic­u­lar social class. Bracelets, ear­rings, rings or neck­laces — all this is with us from the appear­ance with prim­i­tive peo­ple. And they have gone through a lot of changes up to the present day. Although what then, what is now used in prin­ci­ple for the same pur­pos­es.

A bracelet is a piece of jew­el­ry worn on the wrist, ankle or fore­arm. It may have a dif­fer­ent shape and design, but the base is the same.

How the look and purpose of the bracelet has changed over time

In the con­di­tions of the prim­i­tive sys­tem, the bracelet was cre­at­ed as an amulet. It was an orna­ment made from the teeth of dead ani­mals, spe­cial stones and leather ele­ments. Shamans endowed them with a spe­cial pow­er, which was sup­posed to pro­tect the war­rior from evil spir­its and ene­mies in bat­tle, to help in the hunt.

It was from that time and for mil­len­nia ahead that one of the rea­sons to wear a bracelet was to pro­tect blood ves­sels in eas­i­ly acces­si­ble places.

With the onset of the Iron Age after the Neolith­ic, man learned to work met­al. Here the divi­sion into class­es with the help of dec­o­ra­tions is born. Worked met­al bracelets were worn by men of a high­er posi­tion. The poor work­ers were left with unfin­ished leather straps, which were often short-lived.

The ancient Egyp­tians wore many thin bracelets as pro­tec­tion from evil forces and to empha­size sta­tus. On the sur­viv­ing fres­coes, you can see the dif­fer­ence in the bracelets of the pharaoh and those close to the bracelets of sim­pler inhab­i­tants.

Over time, the mate­r­i­al of jew­el­ry has changed. War­riors increas­ing­ly made met­al handrails for pro­tec­tion in bat­tle, and high-rank­ing offi­cials of states empha­sized their sta­tus with them.

After the advent of pre­cious stones, the impor­tance of jew­el­ry has increased sig­nif­i­cant­ly. The stones were processed and insert­ed into the bracelet using all the tech­nolo­gies and tools avail­able at that time.

The use of the bracelet as pro­tec­tion in com­bat was shared with the advent of jew­el­ry. The great­ness of the head of state and his fam­i­ly was nec­es­sar­i­ly reflect­ed in the abun­dance of dec­o­ra­tions.

Often, bracelets and oth­er jew­el­ry were also used as mon­ey. Exchange, buy­ing and sell­ing pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence a new cul­ture and build new trade links. After the emer­gence of such a craft as jew­el­ry and trade, a new sphere appeared.

In India, for a long time, bracelets were used instead of a wed­ding ring as an iden­ti­fi­er of mar­i­tal sta­tus. Also, many are famil­iar with the belief that Arab women con­stant­ly wear so much gold on them­selves. Because in the event of a divorce, they can only leave with what they wear. True or not, East­ern women are famous for their spe­cial love for jew­el­ry and bracelets in par­tic­u­lar.

The Mid­dle Ages became the era where the role of the bracelet was clear­ly divid­ed into jew­el­ry and mil­i­tary uni­forms. Armor with handrails has become an inte­gral part of the war­rior’s defense. And the emper­or, king and head of state wear jew­el­ry as a sym­bol of pow­er and might.

The church in those days had great pow­er, on a par with the ruler, and made its own adjust­ments to the cus­toms and rules of the state. Thus, the ruler, his fam­i­ly and dig­ni­taries could use the jew­els for dec­o­ra­tion. The sim­pler peo­ple in the church were incit­ed to the fact that nar­cis­sism with jew­el­ry is a sin. At the same time, jew­el­ry was active­ly used in the Catholic Church and its para­pher­na­lia.

The next surge of inter­est in jew­el­ry is the Renais­sance. The female body became an object of admi­ra­tion, and a more open wardrobe with bare wrists made it pos­si­ble to freely wear jew­el­ry in the desired amount.

Beau­ty was sung by poets and artists, so men sought to give their ladies beau­ti­ful bracelets. They, in turn, glad­ly accept­ed them and wore them.

Since the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tu­ry, fam­i­ly jew­el­ry col­lec­tions con­tin­ued their life in roy­al fam­i­lies. And for the ordi­nary pop­u­la­tion, the pres­ence of bracelets was close­ly con­nect­ed with the social sys­tem and the sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try. World wars under­mined the econ­o­my of all coun­tries, giv­ing way to com­mu­nist par­ties and demo­c­ra­t­ic views in all spheres of life. And only with the revival of French fash­ion and its pop­u­lar­iza­tion, jew­el­ry returned to active use.

Modern trends

In each of the eras, the foun­da­tions of soci­ety and the rules of the state dic­tat­ed much more in the world of jew­el­ry than now. Only a cer­tain class or class was allowed to wear bracelets. Or it was a cer­tain bracelet that denot­ed slaves and ordi­nary work­ers.

For­tu­nate­ly, these times are long gone, and now every­one can choose the dec­o­ra­tion that suits their taste.

Fash­ion is cycli­cal, so mas­sive plas­tic mod­els are replaced by min­i­mal­ist sets and vice ver­sa. Long-term pur­chas­es for the future and an indi­vid­ual approach are also very rel­e­vant. There­fore, man­u­fac­tur­ers cre­ate basic bracelets with LeDile, Swarovs­ki, Pan­do­ra, Nom­i­na­tion charms — reg­u­lar and lim­it­ed col­lec­tions.

Do not rush to get rid of your favorite jew­el­ry because they have lost their rel­e­vance. In a few years, you will def­i­nite­ly get them with plea­sure.

Bracelet material and care

Each dec­o­ra­tion will remain attrac­tive and serve for a long time only with prop­er care. Pre­cious met­als and nat­ur­al mate­ri­als — leather, suede and glass are durable. But improp­er care can great­ly reduce their lifes­pan.

It is not nec­es­sary to use only pre­cious met­als when choos­ing a bracelet. Mod­ern jew­el­ry can also look decent, espe­cial­ly if it is made from qual­i­ty raw mate­ri­als.

Each man­u­fac­tur­er has its own meth­ods of car­ing for the prod­uct, and when buy­ing, the sell­er will def­i­nite­ly acquaint you with them or offer a book­let with a reminder.

It can be unan­i­mous­ly indi­cat­ed that all bracelets made of any mate­r­i­al should be stored in a dry place on a soft mate­r­i­al. If there are no spe­cial stor­age bags, plas­tic con­tain­ers should be cov­ered with a cloth so that the bracelet is not scratched.

For com­plex bracelets with fine weave or stones, if pos­si­ble, vis­it a jew­el­er who will care­ful­ly check all the links and locks, as well as clean your favorite piece of jew­el­ry. Oth­er­wise, choose non-abra­sive, gen­tle mate­ri­als, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly applied them to the back of the bracelet.

Choose jew­el­ry to your lik­ing, and they will bring only pleas­ant emo­tions.