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logical expression befitting the singularity of Greek
civilization.
Greek Jewellery in the Period 1827 - 1940 Up until 1827 Greek culture was lived, conserved and renewed with secrecy, the people themselves fully aware that. they were the unique bearers of the continuity of Hellenic civilization and the Greek race. For this reason all the. arts, including jewellery which is a purely workshop art, arc described as folk art. So during this era Greek art is identified as folk art and is distinguished from anything of foreign provenance. Jewellery, an essential component of Greek costume and an integral element of Greek life, associated as it was with morals and customs, followed the course of the great political, social and intellectual upheavals that came in the wake of the declaration of Greece as an autonomous state in 1827. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Greeks in the Aegean islands, Crete and the Ionian islands had developed trading relations with Mediteranean lands. These commercial activities brought them into closer contact with the Italian coastal cities of Venice, Genoa, Naples, Leghorn, Ancona with Sardinia, as well as with Vienna and Munich. Exquisite objects of the minor arts produced in important Greek centers - island and mainland - such as Corfu , Ioannina and Kalarrytes, were in great demand in Europe. Conversely, textiles ancl,jewellery imported from the continent influenced both the dress and the jewellery in the islands. Furthermore many expatriate Greeks distinguished themselves primarily as merchants, in European cities, where they established thriving communities. In addition, serious cultural connections had developed between Greeks and Europeans with the spread of the Philhellenic Movement, while European states exercised direct political influence on the fledgeling |
| Fig. 5&6. Classic traditional pieces, mainly handmade in 18 carat gold and set with diamonds and pearls. NIK. G. KANDARAKIS | |
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