I was able to see several period pieces of jewelry at the V&A in London and I was interested to note that the diamonds in the pieces really do look black. It's not just an artist's convention. I would probably describe it as a 'smoke' sort of black, not a solid black but it was a far cry from the sparking white diamonds used in modern jewelry. Karen Seamstrix
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Alexandria Doyle <garbaho...@gmail.com> To: Historical Costume <h-cost...@indra.com> Subject: Re: [h-cost] Black beads Princess Elizabeth image Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:43:28 -0500 During this period it was common for the diamonds to have a foil backing, so they could and do typically look black in paintings. alex On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 11:28 PM, Becky Rautine <zearti...@hotmail.com>wrote: > > After all the discussion about the black beads in other portraits, I see > the black squares in the Princess ELizabeth portrait as the black with a > white spot like someone said. Could these be diamonds instead of onyx or > some other black stones?The pearls are black here, but maybe the others are. > One site that reproduces Renaissance jewelry has this as a white diamond > instead of the black square on the necklace part. I'm making this complete > outfit for my daughter. Are these suppose to be white diamonds instead of > the black squares? I never thought about it until the recent eye-opening > research on black pearls in paintings. > > Sincerely, > Rebecca Rautine > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. > > http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd_062009 > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume > -- So much to do and so little attention span to get it done with… _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume ____________________________________________________________ Save hundreds on an Unsecured Loan - Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTIqYxK5Onn7Q3JA1GV4MEHRxIR7egiMq6wFVSC3JCdBk8pFPXvXsk/ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
