Doing a little bit of drawer cleaning and organizing jewelry made me ponder the question of what is a parure, demi- parure and a grand parure? Parure is a French word commonly used to describe a set of three or more matching pieces of jewelry. They became popular in the 17th century to show wealth or status. It was used as a fine jewelry term but is common to be used by collectors of vintage costume jewelry sets.
- Parure is a matching set of jewelry of three or more pieces
- Demi- Parure is a set of 2 items (necklace-earrings etc.)
- Grand Parure is a complete set of matching jewelry. In the 17th century this usually contained a tiara
Wikipedia describes a parue as: "A matching suite of coordinating pieces could include a necklace, a comb, a tiara, a diadem, a bandeau, a pair of bracelets, pins, rings, drop earrings or cluster stud earrings, brooch and a belt clasp that might be worn over a fine dress" ....whew! =)
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| Josephine in her Grand Parure |
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