Exceptional Art Nouveau Brooch with Emeralds, Pearls, Diamonds and

They are strange flowers that bloom on the shores of this lake. From an impenetrable green depth, they wind their way up to the light. Long, elegantly curved leaves of gold and silver bear sparkling diamonds and glowing green emeralds. A large emerald flower has been placed in the center of the composition. It shines against a blue sky with golden clouds illuminated by the evening light. Two herons have joined it. They are diving for the secrets at the bottom, where precious pearls are waiting to be discovered. This precious brooch is as much a work of art as it is a museum-worthy piece of jewellery. Its size alone sets it apart from purely decorative pieces. Its rich, narrative design full of details is typical of the sophisticated jewellery culture of the years around c. 1900. Art Nouveau artists explored the boundaries between art and craftsmanship by using the motifs and themes of the time in a painting, a sculpture, a book decoration – or a precious brooch. Themes from nature, elegantly moving plant tendrils and even the curved necks of herons were favorite motifs because they could be made to submit to the curved lines of Art Nouveau. But the aquatic, the mysterious underwater world also appealed to the artists of the time beyond its mere forms. Numerous jewellery designs vary the underwater theme – the parallel to the newly discovered subconscious is certainly no coincidence. In an impressive brooch by Louis Aucoc, created in Paris around 1900 and now in the Pforzheim Jewellery Museum, the alluring danger clearly lurks in the deep sea, see online here Similarly, the water is also depicted here in translucent enamel. If you leaf through catalogs of Art Nouveau jewellery, French designers seem to have preferred to create jewellery with translucent enamel and water motifs. A large corsage ornament by Georges Fouquet, created around 1902, is illustrated in the catalog Parisian Jewellery. Vom zweiten Kaiserreich zur Belle Epoque, published by the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich 1989, p. 297ff, cat. 235; a further version can be found here. Other designers who created pieces of jewellery such as this brooch include Lucien Gautrait from France, Philippe Wolfers from Belgium and Lluís Masriera from Barcelona, who was, however, strongly influenced by French models. Our brooch is not signed. However, it bears an old Parisian hallmark indicating that it was made in Paris between 1847 and 1992. Its elegant, typically French design does not allow for any other place of origin. In more recent times, the brooch was imported back to France and hallmarked again on the pin mount. Perhaps the older hallmark, hidden at the top of the neck of the left heron, was simply overlooked. We discovered it in London.

Estimate:$52,831.07

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