Exquisite Nautilus jewelry art masterpieces
The Golden Ratio is widely used in art, architecture and religious symbols by great artists. Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed, has the shape of a nautilus shell. Scientists came to the conclusion that people find beautiful work of art, buildings and even a person who meets the proportions of the golden Ratio.

Nautilus shell symbolizes The Golden Ratio. The proportion of golden section is known as the phi number – 1.61803 … to infinity number after the decimal point – the “key to the physics of the cosmos” (Plato).

Jewelers of Middle Ages used the Nautilus shell in the manufacture of cups. Cup is not just dishes for water or wine – it is deeply symbolic vessel. The base symbolizes the earth, the leg supporting the cup, symbolize the house. The edge of the cup – a crown, and the lid, the roof of the house, completes the cup. Shape of Cup, strict and solemn, emphasizes its special role on the banquet table. Made of gold, silver, crystal, ceramics, and the XVII century – of glass.

Mother of pearl charms and attracts … Since ancient times, pearl was endowed with healing power from all diseases, the ability to enhance human abilities in marriage, protection from the evil eye and spoilage, beneficial effects on the general state of a person. In ancient Egypt, pearl was used for making necklaces, bracelets, all kinds of vessels, because of its beauty and ease in handling. In ancient Rome, mother of pearl was a symbol of power and wisdom, pearl brings happiness and reveals feminine beauty.

Exquisite Nautilus jewelry art masterpieces

Dutch, and later German artists, followed by Chinese masters appreciated the decorative possibilities of large, bulk-shell clam-boat Nautilus Pompilius, swimming in the warm ocean waters. The success of Europeans in the whole decoration of shells explained considerable experience with mother of pearl, from which cut and engraved plaques, inserts for weapons and furniture.

Set in gold and silver, decorated with gems beautiful exotic shellfish spiral twisted curls and intricate design turned into precious masterpieces of representative dishes: luxury Nautilus cups. It was believed that the shell, as well as other products of the sea, endowed with mysterious cleaning properties. In Nautilus-Cup poison loses its force, and the vessel walls change color and fade.

But before creating a magical beauty of the cup, it was necessary to free the shellfish from the layers and dirt. European craftsmen placed acid in the shell for 10 days and then removed the upper horny layer. To give the shell a soft shine, it was necessary to polish and rinse with alkaline water. Illuminated, thin pearl shells charmingly gleamed with iridescent hues of pink, blue, yellow in unusually rich range of colors. Paying tribute to the natural perfection of a small shell, a master could keep the outer projecting portion of the navel, leave it untouched and as open as possible. Often shell was decorated with relief or openwork carving, used wax and acid.

After processing, the already fragile wall becomes thin as a sheet of paper, so samples with openwork carving are scarce in museum collection. The upper part of the mouth of the shell, internal partitions and chambers were decorated with carved or engraved floral ornament. Decorating nautilus, jewelers often used stories of ancient mythology associated with the sea.

Exquisite Nautilus jewelry art masterpieces

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