In Italy the jewels of the 1800s are the Bourbon jewels, characteristic of Southern Italy, executed in low and very light gold despite the large volumes, often decorated with enamels on fire and micro-pearls.
The Bourbon style, also called popular goldsmithery, was born with the birth of a new social class, the bourgeoisie, which soon became passionate about the goldsmithery, until then the prerogative of the nobility and clergy. Of course, the women of the lower classes do not want to be less and give up the jewels, although they have more narrow resources.
The Bourbon jewels, even if they do not have a high value regarding the materials, are instead very precious in the manufacture. The new processing techniques of the period allowed to create jewels in thin foil, which was cut and worked in the mold: in this way, the amount of gold used was limited, but the processing and use of stones and especially of interweaving of beads it gave the jewels of the Bourbon period an aura of very lively opulence.
