19th Century
Diamond parures, branch forms for the side of the head, stomachers, and bow-knots abound during the age of Romanticism and the Second Empire in France and into the Belle Epoque. While once the privilege of royalty and those at the very top of society, rich supplies from South Africa from the 1870s on made diamonds available to all who could afford them. Seen under the blaze of gas and electric lighting, diamond's brilliance showed to greater advantage than colored stones, and so designs included them in far greater numbers than at every time in history. As an alternative to silver and to white gold, settings are slowly more executed in platinum, which can carry the weight of many stones in a lighter setting.