Fall for This Season’s New Jewelry

With the holidays on the horizon, now’s the perfect time to stock up on stylish gifts and unique adornments for your near-future festivities. As always, this season’s designs celebrate treasures all across The Met collection, from ancient Egypt to Rococo-period France and beyond. Find out what’s new at The Met Store.

European Buckle Enamel Jewelry

The fabulous creations of the Etruscan, ancient Roman, early Christian, Byzantine, and medieval periods sparked a 19th-century nostalgia for bygone art. The exquisite gold, silver, star sapphire, diamond, and enamel belt buckle (ca. 1900) that inspired our dazzling collar necklace and drop earrings epitomizes the taste for so-called archaeological jewelry, a trend that emerged from the mounting buzz over excavated treasures. 

Artists and designers such as Carlo Giuliano (Italian, active England, ca. 1831–1895) and his son Arthur (Italian, active England, ca. 1864–1914), who established a successful firm in London in the last quarter of the 19th century, sought to revive various historical styles through their adornments, such as the Museum's belt buckle, finely crafted with an eye toward the past.

Herakles Knot Jewelry

This sleek and timeless jewelry—available in sterling silver, 14K gold over sterling silver, and mixed metals—borrows the Herakles knot on a 2nd-century bracelet from Roman-period Egypt. 

The ancient Greeks named this simple but strong knot in reference to the mythical hero Herakles, who used it to tie the skin of the slain Nemean lion around his neck upon fulfilling the first of his legendary 12 labors. Because of its affiliation with Herakles, celebrated for his strength and bravery, the knot was considered a protective amulet. It also assumed association with marriage and fertility. The Herakles knot remained a popular ornamental form into Roman times, as exemplified by the Museum’s bracelet. 

Karavas Gems Jewelry

We've built this sophisticated collection around a timeless 6th–7th-century necklace found at Karavas, Cyprus, which once belonged to the Byzantine empire. 

In 330 CE, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337)—the first Christian ruler of the Roman empire—transferred the imperial capital from Rome to the eastern city of Byzantion, which he renamed Constantinople ("the city of Constantine") in his own honor. As the inheritors of the Roman empire, the Byzantines carried the torch of tradition and produced a wealth of wearable treasures in precious gold, silver, and gemstones, signaling their unwavering status. The Museum’s adornment, with its colorful green-quartz beads, lustrous pearls, and exquisite opus interrasile craftsmanship—a pierced metalwork technique used between the 3rd and 7th centuries—exemplifies the astounding finesse of Byzantine jewelry.

Philippine Pearl Jewelry

The luminous Philippine Pearl collection evokes a gold-and-pearl rosary made in the 17th–19th-century Philippines and now in the Museum’s holdings.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Spanish missionaries traveled to the Philippines and brought with them, among many other Western traditions, the Catholic rosary: a string of beads used to count repetitions of prayers. These devotional beads assumed various sizes and forms, and continued to evolve. In the Philippines, which notably boasts the second largest gold reserves in the world, many rosaries and tamborins—a type of Philippine necklace that combined the European rosary with pre-Hispanic and Asian visual concepts—were made of gold and embellished with beads of coral or pearl.

King Elephant Brooch

This endearing elephant honors the great 'Alam Guman Gajraj as depicted in a magnificent watercolor painted around 1640 and now in The Met's Islamic Art collection. 

The Museum's portrait, which is attributed to the artist Bichitr (Indian, active ca. 1610–60), features a Persian inscription commemorating the animal as the "king of elephants." Elephants were prized in Indian courts, and this mighty tusker was presented to the Mughal emperor Jahangir during the New Year celebrations of March 21, 1614.

Japanese Imari Jewelry

This statement-making jewelry draws inspiration from a pair of painted porcelain bottles. Though the bottles were made between around 1690 and 1720 in the Japanese province of Hizen, they're housed in the Museum's European Sculpture and Decorative Arts holdings as they were specifically made for the European export market. 

Imari porcelain, a type of Japanese Hizen ware characterized by elaborate patterns in bold colors, became especially coveted by high-society patrons in late 17th- and early 18th-century Europe. This demand for vibrancy eventually eclipsed the taste for the blue-and-white palette traditionally associated with imported Asian ceramics.

Spanish Day and Night Jewelry

These celestial motifs celebrate a type of print called a broadside depicting 48 allegorical figures pertaining to the sun and the moon. 

The original was printed about 1860–70 by Juan Llorens (Spanish, active ca. 1855–70), an active publisher of broadsides in Barcelona. Broadsides were issued by the thousands and sold on the street or in publishers’ shops beginning in 16th-century Europe. These inexpensive sheets of small images, made to entertain the buyer with depictions of current news, children’s games, popular tales, and so on, were so well received that certain printing presses made them their specialty. Many early broadsides have been lost due to their ephemeral nature, but numerous others survive in The Met's collection of drawings and prints.

Read our blog post to learn more about what inspired this jewelry. 

Qing Bottle Jewelry

We’ve transformed a trio of Chinese snuff bottles from the Qianlong period (1736–95) into a varied collection of jewelry.

Snuff bottles were among the first glass objects forged at the Qing imperial workshops in China. They were originally produced for the emperor and his court in the early 18th century to preserve the precious potency of snuff, a mixture of finely ground tobacco leaves and aromatic herbs and spices. Soon, these small but spectacular vessels became coveted commodities themselves.  

Rococo Motifs Jewelry

The sumptuous jewel tones and gilding on a fashionable French commode (ca. 1740–45), or chest of drawers, inform our statement-making jewelry featuring radiant glass stones that glimmer in the light. 

The Museum's commode boasts magnificent Chinese lacquer work, likely derived from a folding screen that made its way to Europe via the Coromandel coast of southeast India. Multiple stamps bearing the initials "BVRB" indicate that the commode was made by Bernard II van Risenburgh (French, ca. 1696–ca. 1767), a preeminent ébéniste during Louis XV's reign (1715–1774). His style is also identifiable by his use of elegant gilt-bronze mounts.

Egyptian Nefer Amulet Red Jasper Jewelry

This handcrafted suite evokes a splendid Egyptian collar (ca. 1504–1450 BCE) of amulets featuring the "nefer" hieroglyph, which signifies a word meaning "good" or "beautiful." 

The auspicious symbolism of the Museum's adornment suggests that it may have been made to bring good fortune to the wearer—in this case, a wife of the pharaoh Thutmose III. Our contemporary visions of this outstanding broad collar are both eye-catching and lightweight for an effortless statement.  

Find our new arrivals and more inspired by The Met collection in-store and online, and shop our latest catalog for thoughtful gifts sure to delight you and your loved ones.