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Tucked in the closet of an elderly woman lies a small box adorned with intricate metal patterns interwoven with lace. Inside the box resides the treasures of her youth. Brooches, bracelets, rings, and necklaces remain untouched for years but still shine as brilliant as the day they came into the woman's possession. She doesn't wear them or even look at them. But she knows they are there, a piece of her locked in the closet in a location known only to her. This scenario characterizes the fate of most items of jewelry sold. Eventually, it ends up either lost, passed down, or locked lovingly away among almost forgotten memorabilia and clothes that no longer fit. While jewelry has existed in human culture since for nearly 75 thousand years, perhaps humankind's fascination with personal adornment can be summed up less as an impulse of vanity and more as an investment in the memory of hope, youth, and opportunity. Gemstones and other similar minerals like amber, coral, precious metals, and beads are incorporated and worn to accentuate the human form. Perhaps one reason for the natural fascination that humans have for the jewel is the appropriation of natural resources in different contexts. In a most basic way the use of mineral resources as adornments stands as a symbol of human dominance over the natural world and their ability to manipulate the beauty found in nature to their human aesthetic whims. The varying complexities of designs and the rarity of the gems and stones involved have long served to make jewelry a marker of social class. Historically the rarer and most intricate pieces would be reserved for royalty and noble classes, while the more common classes will often be found wearing pieces less audacious. In any case, these adornments serve the fundamental purpose of improving appearances, to engage in a fantasy of glamour and upward social mobility. No one wears jewels to look poor, they wear them to escape the realities of their social class and embrace an idea of beauty, stability, and timelessness. At the same time that jewelry acts to symbolize the human reorganization of the natural world, it simultaneously acts to connect us with nature. Because these minerals do not often degrade, jewel pieces have a unique quality of being an object outside of time. Perhaps we embrace these objects because they allow us to hold on to our hopes and dreams, to our fantasies of self-improvement and personal potential indefinitely. While reality may pass us by, break us down and age our bodies, the gleam of a diamond ring in the right light or the brilliance of a golden bangle may never fade. With jewelry, we adorn ourselves with unrealistic desires. But perhaps this is why we are so drawn to it, because in addition to being shiny, they fills us with an impulse that, though flawed and unrealistic, is fundamentally human. In Birmingham, jewelry from Bromberg & Co Inc. can be the perfect gift for your loved ones. To see their selection of items, visit: http://brombergs.com.
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