This bracelet is from the exact same year Mark Twain popularized the term “Gilded Age.” 1873 in the United States: That year, Twain and Charles Dudley Warner published The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, satirizing fortunes, made and lost overnight with railroads, speculation, and political corruption. Beneath the grand houses and elaborate clothes and extravagant events, industrialization rapidly remade American life — and not always for the better.

These industrial innovations made this bracelet, patented September 16, 1873. An ornate Victorian aesthetic with precise, machined gold fill mesh. Fluid, comfortable, and affordable without losing any of the grandness and intricacy of Victorian jewelry.

While the Gilded Age suggested something rotten beneath the gold, this bracelet has nothing to hide. Antique gold fill is thicker and better made than its contemporary. With the right care, the thick gold layer will last decades. When it finally does wear down to reveal the silver or brass base metal, I find it creates patina that adds to the design rather than takes away.

In this bracelet, the gold fill layer has stayed put for more than 150 years. With this gilt bracelet, you can take the best of the Gilded Age with you.

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