Studio: international art (38.1906)

Austrian Peasant Ornaments

FIGS. 15 & 16. BACK COMBS MADE OF BONE AND
COLOURED TINFOIL AT OLD STERZING, TYROL
(Property of the K. k. Fachschule, Bozen, and Herr
K. Wohlgemuth)

this way, because he can buy a burnt-wood or cheap
bone one at the nearest shop. The Styrian peasant
woman used to wear pins with round heads, while in
Salzburg the dagger head was preferred (see Fig. 19).

The form of the brooch was also distinct. In
Egerland it was of silver, octagonal in form and set
with malachite, something like those worn in Scot-
land to fasten the plaids. In other districts it was
formed of brass or silver wire and set with granite,
pearls, or some other stone. In Styria such
brooches are still worn. In Gablonz, the Birming-
ham of Bohemia, the imitation article is largely
exported. But Gablonz and the district round can
boast of past glories in ornaments, for centuries
before the age of machinery it was famous for its
jewellery. In Cortina d’Ampezzo the finest silver
filigree work is still made, and the Ministry
of Fine Arts has done much to revive this almost
lost art by establishing a “Fachschule” there. In
Wallachia, in Silesia and other parts, the brooches
are of heavy filigree richly set with turquoise blue
and granite red stones. In Dalmatia and Istria
the brooch is of silver-gilt engraved or pierced. In
fact, where the costume is particularly rich, and
where it is still worn as it has been for centuries,
the ornaments are naturally richer to correspond,
whereas in Salzburg, Styria and Tyrol, where the
national costume is simpler, the ornaments too
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are simpler. In Dalmatia they are richest of all,
and their Byzantine origin is conspicuous. On
the coast the ornaments are generally of gold, in
the inland they are of silver. Here both men and
women wear earrings, and the patterns are the
same as in bygone times, for fashion has fortunately
no fluctuations here. The jewellery is not made by
the peasants themselves, but it is made for them.

As may be expected, there is great variety in the
necklets and bracelets, and here, too, Dalmatia
stands first for richness of design (Figs. 10 and 12).
Those made in Upper Austria consist of ten or
twelve rows of links fastened with an ornamental
clasp either of beaten metal or of metal set with
stones (Figs. 8 and 9). In Styria the long central
pendant used to be favoured (Fig. 20).

At Hallein, in the province of Salzburg, and in
the city of Salzburg itself, heavy filigree work was
made. But this kind of work dates only from the
end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth
century. It is probable that those articles of a pre-
vious date found there may have been smuggled in
from Gmund,in Swabia, or across some other frontier.
The frequent pilgrimages made to Maria Zell, in

FIGS. 17 & 18. BACK COMBS MADE OF BONE AND
COLOURED TINFOIL AT OLD STERZING, TYROL, EARLY
NINETEENTH CENTURY

(Property of the K. k. Fachschule, Bozen, and Herr
K. Wohlgemuth)