Milgrain was part of the ancient goldsmithing playbook long before Edwardian and Art Deco jewelers made it one of the most recognizable fine-jewelry edging techniques.
Visually Speaking
Contemporary lockets in geometric forms maintain the same hinge-and-clasp mechanism as the Victorian oval, but with flat-faced exteriors and tighter tolerances.
Origin Story
India's alluvial deposits, primarily in the Golconda region of present-day Andhra Pradesh, constituted the world's sole commercial diamond source from antiquity until Brazilian deposits were discovered in the early 18th century, the stone reserved in Indian tradition for royalty, its movement into European markets through Persian and Venetian trade networks beginning in the medieval period and accelerating through the 15th and 16th centuries.