Essay On Cufflinks

How Cufflinks Came About
The 17th century witnessed the dawn of cufflinks as an official symbol of fashion, social prestige and luxury. Everyone in the western world was fastening their shirtsleeves with ribbon or ordinary strings that time. The first few pieces of cufflinks were made as fairly simple buttons, linked together by a small chain, and they were made of glass. A century hence, a new jewelry material was introduced-glass paste which was often used to form little gems.
Still another century and cufflinks became a part and parcel of men's accessory. New production techniques were also introduced. Electroplating and electro-metallurgy permitted more freedom for elaborate designs in gold and silver. These techniques also provided for the mass production of cufflinks making it available to the masses. Cufflinks were before accessories of affluent persons but the 19th century made cufflinks accessible to the steadily increasing bourgeoisie. Cheaper materials like metal alloys and imitation jewelries were used to create cheaper cufflinks. During the 1860s, famous jewelers like Child & Child in London and Krementz & Company in New York have modified their practice and targeted the masses and middle class as their cufflinks market. They sold each pair in a price that was just right for anyone to afford.
The French cuff, or the

This low point further challenged the cufflinks producers to create more elegant, classy and rare cufflinks. Cufflinks then started to take on a different image: a man who wears them is the quintessence of business and evening style. Van Cleef & Arpels started inventing designs-the channel setting-where stones are the primary designs but no metal support is visible. These, by far, are the most jeweled cufflinks that are still being produced up until