Unusual Aquamarine and Diamond Retro Style Brooch, c. 1940s

The jewelry designers of the late 1930s and 1940s broke new ground: instead of white gold and platinum, yellow and red gold were now the metals of choice again, and the shapes became more sculptural, voluminous and expansive, although still designed from a powerful geometry. This change in style can be explained not exclusively, but also by the technical and economic changes of the time. Platinum was no longer available to goldsmiths to the same extent as before, at the latest at the beginning of the war, which is why the switch to yellow gold was not only voluntary. A virtue was thus made of necessity - the designs of the time are characterized by a marked creativity. This brooch is one such piece. Its design is expressive and dynamic, almost sculptural in its three-dimensional volume. A closer look reveals several gold colors, which lend depth to the grooved shapes that look like wild waves or sprawling leaves. Narrow bands of blue enamel shine between them. Its design and materiality reveal that it was created around 1940: it was the time of the so-called "retro style", which produced expressive designs in multicolored gold. When the brooch came to us, its original center stone was missing. We decided to add an aquamarine, as this was the gemstone of choice in the 1940s alongside the ruby: an intense light blue emerald-cut aquamarine surrounded by organic-looking gold elements is one of the characteristic brooch types of the time. We assume that this brooch was also originally set with an aquamarine. This large piece is a wonderful, glamorous piece of jewelry from a period that was as exciting as it was innovative.

Estimate:$12,347.49

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