Antique 18K Gold and Platinum Snake Bracelet

This English platinum and 18K gold serpent bracelet was created circa the 1870s-1880s. The diminutive serpent with gold head highlighted by platinum accents and emerald eyes continues to a tightly woven, coiling 18K gold mesh body with platinum stripes, conforming tail. Highly appealing in its softness, sleek form and feel, this unusual snake bracelet is a timeless jewel for the small wrist.

Dimensions: Bracelet is flexible and fits a small-medium wrist.
Materials: 2 round emeralds; 18K Gold; Platinum
Gram Weight: 18.1 g.
Signed: 18ct
Literature: The 1870s fashion for snake bracelets of multiple coils is discussed in Victorian Jewellery, by Margaret Flowers, p. 138.

Snake or serpent bracelets of flexible mesh coiling up the arm were a beloved jewel of the 1870s. In Victorian Jewellery, by Margaret Flowers, the author discovered a revealing commentator's remark in an 1878 couture periodical: "I have counted as many as nine of these serpent coils round an arm. The serpent's head is generally on the wrist." By the 1870s, technology for working platinum became widespread, and jewelers were quick to employ it in creative ways in their work.