The Line

It litters the landscape.  It jars your eyes.  It lags the sim.  It is ... bling.

Yes, that is right, the dreaded bling.  The bane of super primmy lands everywhere, the necessary accessory of every gansta, wannabe rapper out there.

But rappers did not invent the bling.  Oh no, bling has been around for a very long time.

Humans have long adorned their bodies with geegaws and sparklies.  Ancients were buried with their shiny bits of treasure, their lovely stones, shells and feathers.  Ancient Celts beat pieces of gold thin and wove them into their hair.  Vikings wore their wealth in silver brooches on their clothes called Hack silver brooches.  Elaborate silver broaches were pinned to the collar with dangling bits of silver on them.  Whenever they needed to pay for something, they would hack off a piece and pay with that.

Jewelry became more refined as the years went on.  Jewelry was worn for religious purposes.  It was made from all sorts of materials from woods and ivory to metals and stones.  Noblemen wore their jewels into battle to help mark them to their men as the one in charge and to bribe their way out of fixes if they were captured on the field.

Jewelry was a way to not only show off wealth, but carry it with you in an easily convertible form.

For centuries, buttons were not used to hold your clothing together but to decorate it.  Cuffs were trimmed with buttons, collars lined with them, and bodices were decorated with these movable accessories. It wasn't until the 13th Century that tight fitting clothing required a different way to fasten and thus the invention of the button hole. In the Renaissance, kings, queens and great nobles showed their status by buying and wearing expensive buttons encrusted with jewels and pearls.  Louis XIV spent six million dollars on buttons during his reign.

Then along came Victorian times and the advent of Cartier.  This French jeweler and watch enterprise was founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis-Francois Cartier when he took over from his former master.  By Victorian times, American railroad barons were decking out their ladies in tiaras, rings, bracelets, and pectorals.

Cartier was renowned for their bestiary designs, once even taking four platinum broaches with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds from the Duke of Windsor and turning them into a three inch long flamenco with the gems as plumage, a gift for his wife, the former Mrs. Wallace Simpson.

Recently an exhibit opened at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco featuring famous and infamous pieces of Cartier jewelry.  Many of these pieces are displayed with paintings and photos of the owners wearing them.

Once you view this exhibit, you see that Second Life can't hold a candle to the ladies and gents that wore this jewelry.  These glittering creations are massive things that rival the biggest rapper fashion that you can find in Second Life.  Yet they have a bit of elegance and class to them.

If you can get to San Francisco before the exhibit closes in April, I would recommend it highly.  Oh, and fellas, Princess Grace's ten plus carat diamond engagement ring from Prince Reinier is on display.  What a romantic place to plan a proposal....