Dainty Art Deco Brooch with Diamonds in Platinum on White Gold, Circa 1925

The "new woman" was the ideal of the 1920s and early 1930s. She had won the right to vote, was self-confident in professional and romantic matters and was part of the nightlife - things that still seemed unimaginable at the beginning of the century. Articles in influential German fashion journals such as "Die Dame" bear witness to the fact that this new self-image could also be translated into aesthetics, indeed that it virtually necessitated a new aesthetic. The women portrayed there wore bobbed heads and strikingly made-up lips, loosely cut dresses - and yet the most influential among them were not simply style icons, but were active as authors and artists. It goes without saying that the floral and playful jewellery of the Belle Époque was reminiscent of the time before the war, of a different social order. The jewellery of the new woman consciously set itself apart from this. It was clear-cut and geometric and deliberately avoided anything sweet. It was a linear, often emphatically austere elegance that characterized the most modern pieces of jewellery of the time. This brooch - or as it was called in jewellery catalogues of the time, a "broochette" - is one such modern piece. Its design with the two large openings is based on the so-called "shoulder pins", which were particularly popular in the 1920s and were designed for a new way of wearing. They were characterized by the fact that they had a narrow round, oval or rectangular frame and offered open spaces on the inside through which the silk fabric of the dress could shimmer. Exquisitely crafted saw work and milgrains structure the platinum on white gold front, typical of the period. It is set all over with diamonds in various cuts, giving the design the inimitable white sparkling elegance that characterizes the jewellery of the 1920s.

Estimate:$2,575.2

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