The mounting of small birds or their heads in jewellery was fashionable in the 1860s and 1870s. A visitor to Harry Emanuel's shop in 1865 described his stock as including humming birds' heads mounted in necklaces and earrings. Complete humming bird heads, breasts and bodies, found in South America and perhaps prepared in the United States were used, and the international fashion endured until the 1870s. Ward & Co and A. Boucard contributed bird and beetle jewellery to the International Exhibition of 1872; the 'Report' referring to the latter's examples as 'specimens of beautiful colour'.

Harry Emanuel took over his father's jewellery business in 1855, and in 1865 followed his work in ivory with the use of feathers and plumage in jewellery. His patented technique involved the gluing of feathers to prepared mounts using shellac. He retired in 1873, and later became, at his own expense, the Minister Plenipotentiary (ambassador) of the Domican Republic in France. He died in Nice in 1898.