A jeweller assembled this bracelet in France using panels of Japanese metalwork. These panels dated from about 1810 to 1830 and had originally been designed as purse mounts. Japanese metalworkers were extremely skilled and achieved effects unknown in Europe. Here the maker has inlaid a blue-black alloy of copper and gold (shakudo) with complex patterns in gold. Japanese art and design had scarcely been seen in Europe between 1624 and the 1850s. Consequently there was immense interest in Japanese design from the 1850s onwards. The Japanese Court at the London Exhibition of 1862 was the first significant showing of contemporary Japanese work in Britain. It helped to spread its influence throughout Europe.