Snake Charms: Why snake-themed jewellery finds favour through the ages?
While cats and dogs pretty much clean up on the online meme front, these doughty domestic favourites do noticeably less well on the feature jewellery front. In fact, it’s fair to say, in that particular arena, “four legs bad, no legs good”, with sultry serpents notably snaking out in front.
Pretty much since one bright Bronze Age beau fashioned the first romantic keepsake, snakes have been a recurrent fine jewellery motif on many of the world’s most cultured civilisations. In China, for instance, the snake symbolises reproduction – it doesn’t take too great a leap of the imagination to see why. It has similar resonances throughout India and Nepal, with Hindu god, Shiva, depicted as draping a snake around his neck, and believers worshipping the snake as symbol of desire and sexual passion. The more business-minded Romans, however, primarily associated the creature with wealth and prosperity.
It was perhaps Ancient Egypt, however, that set the high watermark for snake veneration, with these legless lizards seen as wholly synonymous with royalty and even divinity. Indeed, a pharaoh was not deemed to be a legitimate ruler unless his crown incorporated the rearing gold cobra that was the mark of Wadjet, the goddess under whose protection Egypt thrived.
In times more contemporary, the serpent motif has been co-opted by the haute joaillerie world, with a number of high-end jewellers – notably Bulgari and Damiani – creating exotic, wholly snake-themed collections. This celebration of the reptile has even extended to Hong Kong, where Stéfère now offers a range of snake-themed jewellery, a homage to one of the most venomous members of the snake clan.
Check out our slideshow of the most viper-esque jewellery below.
Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay
