Neck ornaments were among the first personal adornments, from prehistoric beads of shell, bone, stone and other natural materials, to more sophisticated metal torcs and collars produced 4,000-5,000 years ago. During the Bronze Age, metallic materials including bronze, silver and gold became predominant, ancient civilisations favouring various techniques and designs and using semi-precious stones such as carnelian, lapis lazuli and coral. Some necklaces have served religious, ceremonial or magical functions and are symbols of wealth and status.

By the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance period, men wore many chains, pendants and wide collars set with gemstones, some items signifying their office or bearing chivalric emblems. The Tudor vogue for low necklines on ladies’ gowns encouraged the wearing of fine pearl or ruby necklaces, crosses and delicate pendants. Elizabethan taste favoured ornate jewelled, coloured enamelled and gold neck ornaments, as well as heavy looped ropes of pearls and antique-revival cameo pendants. Black neck choker ribbons were a Jacobean vogue, pearls remaining fashionable until advances in diamond-cutting techniques elevated the role of gemstones in the later 1600s. Meanwhile the growing fashion for portraiture inspired the wearing of a miniature painting of a loved one in a pendant or locket around the neck.

During the 1700s the growth of the middle class and rising consumerism fuelled production of many fashionable necklaces and pendants made from traditional materials and new, cheaper imitation metals and stones. In the late 1700s/early 1800s jewellery followed the neoclassical vogue and afterwards various historical styles emerged, from heavy Renaissance-inspired chains to gold collars and necklets emulating ancient finds from Victorian archaeological excavations. Sentimental lockets and pendants containing paintings and, from the mid-1800s, photographs were popular with people from all walks of life until well into the 20th century: many of these have survived to the present as family heirlooms.

Pearls, worn since antiquity, became especially fashionable again between the 1880s and 1910s, Edwardian pearl choker collars being a major trend. Quality jewellery always used precious metals, natural pearls and fine gemstones such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, until the interwar era when a wider range of organic materials from amber to ivory came into vogue. By the late 1920s Bakelite and other materials were also being used for inexpensive ‘costume jewellery’, stylish ornaments designed to complement different outfits. Since then, cheaper fashion-led beads and necklaces have been admired alongside luxury jewellery.