2.13.2009

Playing Cupid


The Victorians viewed the world through a veil of romance and sentiment. Flowers, hands, anchors, knots and hearts were symbols of emotion and attachment. Cupid, or Eros, was the consummate love token. The god of erotic love and beauty, he is often depicted with wings, a bow and a quiver of arrows with which to "inspire" romantic love. Cupid’s arrow, once struck the heart, makes the victim fall in love.


Around the mid-eighteenth century, discoveries of archaeological sites in Italy and Egypt sparked an obsession for neo-classicism that widely influenced the architecture, art and design of the period, including Josiah Wedgwood's jasperware, with its distinctive raised white bas-relief depictions of Greek and Roman mythology. Cupid was a popular Wedgwood motif throughout the mid-twentieth century, when many of the pieces I collect were manufactured.

Cynthia Rybakoff’s single edition re-mixed Wedgwood Cupid cameo jewelry: vintage 14k gold filled black basalt heart pendant on 17 1/2" vintage chains, $315; 12k gold filled vintage classic blue screw back earrings, $105; 12k gold filled vintage sage green pendant with modern 24k vermeil 23" pearl chain, $275. By request at CynthiaRybakoff.com.

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