Beside the methods of making false pearls, many recipes were developed to reproduce other precious and semi-precious stone beads (ill. 8-11). Even cameos were successfully made of glass (ill.17). In the second half of the 19>th century the first synthetic materials which could be used in jewelry were developed. But the attitude of Russian society towards false jewelry before the Revolution (1917) was in the main very traditional. Noble women could wear only genuine stones and gold. Jewelry with glass was worn by lower classes or demimondaines. Nevertheless there were some exceptions. For example for young persons Venetian necklaces, micromosaic brooches or lava cameos brought as souvenirs from Italy, seemed to be quite popular (ill. 4, 6, 24, 24a). The jewelry made of jet or black glass was also very widespread (N1.12). In Russia, as everywhere in Victorian epoch, it was a sign of mourning. From the Caucasian resorts ladies brought silver pendants, bracelets and thimbles often with the inscription “Кавказъ”. Other Russian centers of cheap jewelry were situated in Krasnoje Selo on the Volga, Ribnaja Sloboda near Kazan, village Kostino near Dmitrov, and the countryside of Kholmogori in the Archangelskaja province.
At the end of the 1870s the so called Russian style became very fashionable. In the summer girls paraded in embroidered blouses and aprons with many varieties of necklaces (ill. 27, 27b). Among them could be beads similar to those worn by Russian peasants (ill. 28, 28a). Such jewelry made of the smallest beads could also be worn by the fashionable ladies in the city (ill. 28b).
In the early 20th century the new fashion style “art nouveau” appeared. Ladies abandoned corsets and put on the fashions of Paul Poiret and the jewelry of Rene Lalique. There is a story “ The Demonic Woman” by a famous writer of the time Nadezhda Teffi, who was extremely witty. It described an exotic lady, who “allows herself to wear a belt only on the head, an earring on her forehead or on her neck, a ring on the thumb, the watch on her leg”. The caricature of a fashionable woman published in St Petersburg in 1912 seemed to be an illustration of this story (ill. 40).
Of course “demonic women” were very few, but ordinary ladies began to wear much more jewelry than in the 19>th century and sometimes they were rather unusual (N1.41, 42). Furthermore, customs became more and more democratic, and even quite respectable ladies could afford to wear some trendy jewelry, made of inexpensive materials.