Today's Vintage Jewelry Word - Tessera

Today's vintage jewelry word is tessera. The plural of tessera. (pronounced tess-er-aye) A tessera is an individual tile used in a mosaic, usually in the form of a cube.

Originally, the tiles used were small, naturally colored pebbles, but eventually special tiles were made to use in the making of pictures or designs on mosaics of all types.

In vintage jewelry, this is a word used for small glass tiles which are combined to make intricate designs in Micro Mosaic, Mosaic and Pietra Dura Jewelry, which were very popular with Italian artisans.

Marble or limestone pieces were cut into small cubes that were then arranged into the mosaic design. Much later, the tesserae were made from colored glass. This is the type of tiles that we have come to know and recognize when used in Italian micro mosaic jewelry.

The size of the tiles determines what the mosaic style is called. They range from micro mosaics, where the smallest tesserae were used, through medium sized tiles, which were used in mosaic jewelry, through to Pietra Dura, where the largest tiles were used.

The following are examples of the various styles of mosaic jewelry and shows the differences between the tesserae. You can click on the pictures to get a better idea of the size of the tiles.

The micro mosaic red photo is courtesy of ebay seller artsmart275

For more words of the week, you can go to our Words of the Week Archives in the resource library on Vintage Jewelry Lane.

Today's Vintage Jewelry Words - Pietra Dura

There are many styles of mosaic jewelry. One that I particularly like is called Pietra Dura. In this type of design, which is similar to Micro Mosaics, the tessarae or tiles are much larger and are made from hard stones such as chalcedony, jasper, lapis lazuli, and other nice stones.

These large tiles are then set into a solid back ground such as sandstone or black marble for a pictoral effect. The surface of the design is flush with no protruding tiles or grooves between the tiles.

Floral scenes are the most common, but any design can be used, such as butterflies, human figures, birds and architectural buildings.

The settings are generally silver or genuine gold, but plated settings and brass are also used. Most settings are open backed to show the back of the background stone used.

The popularity of Pietra dura pieces dates from the early to mid 1800s. This type of souvenir jewelry is known as "Archeological Jewelry." Mosaic jewelry of all kind became fairly widely available after the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Pietra Dura jewelry was found in Italy - especially Florence, but was also available around the same time in England and other European areas. I've also seen some examples of it in pieces from Taxco Mexico.

This type of mosaic jewelry is highly collectible and fuels much of the tourist trade today in Italy.

Be sure to visit my website Vintage Jewelry Lane. I have a large range of mosaic jewelry, including some of the Pietra Dura pieces shown in this article.

Photos are courtesy of ebay sellers anteaklovr, clelak and Adin Fine Antique Jewelry and vintagejewelrylane.com