Antique Amuletic DozenRockCrystals CagedRing MedievalStyle GiltBronze Pendant

In the late 1940s, Trifari's French-born artistic director Alfred Philippe, who had earlier created fine jewelry for Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, designed this flora-motif crystal...

This early-16th-Century Renaissance period silver-repousse round medallion pendant features a romantic encounter in a rural landscape between a man and smiling woman wearing European-nobility fashion, including a men's feathered hat, tights and sword. A silversmith was commissioned by this unknown man to make the pendant as a hat badge to promote his affectionate nature, which is conveyed by the welcomed gestures between the adult couple, who stand cheek-to-cheek and hand-in-hand. As there is a church in the distant landscape, this may have been his wedding-engagement announcement. It is worth noting that romantic love via marriage was a rarity before the 18th Century. The tragic romantic Italian legend of Romeo and Juliet was first translated into English for publication in 1562--several decades before Shakespeare turned it into a famous play about a deadly consequence of separating lovers. The pendant medallion is framed with a filigree-like inward-curving bezel and a flat metal backplate, while its bail enables it to be pinned as a brooch or strung on a necklace. A perfect engagement or wedding gift for a man or woman who loves antique...

A child of the Art Nouveau period, Miriam Haskell loved its butterfly design-motifs, which are found in many pieces of costume jewelry by her first designer Frank Hess. His butterfly...

As one of Miriam Haskell's earliest fur clips from the late 1920s, these two Russian-gold gilt mostly brass brooches by her first designer Frank Hess are tethered as a lariat by thre...

During the Art-Nouveau period while German-born Vienna-based silversmith, niello master, and entrepreneur Georg Adam Scheid (1837-1921) was prospering from a related refinery busines...

Unusually decorated with small partridge feathers like the yellow-gold gilt necklace commissioned by Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) that is featured on the front-and-back covers and centerfold of the French costume-jewelry hardcover book, Lina Baretti Parures, by Patrick Mauries, this unique pave-crystal yellow-gold gilt metal partridge-on-a-branch brooch is further distinguished as an unsigned Parisian-couture piece for Italian-born Schiaparelli with its combination of embossed text "Made In France" and "Modele Depose", along with the trombone clasp often used in the early 20th Century for custom-made French small brooches. The book centerfold on pages 90-91 shows a closeup of the feathered necklace created by French-born Corsican Baretti, whose intricate decoration often mixed ready-made textural or shiny materials like velvet, cork, wire, rhodoid or raffia with custom-made metal, plastic or glass by specialized Parisian workshops such as Gripoix. The Baretti-book caption about the attributed necklace notes: "Collier realise pour Elsa Schiaparelli. Liege, soie, cannetille, perles de verre et plumes de perdix. Chaine en metal." While none of the captions date this necklace--which could have been from the same commission as our brooch--Baretti created one-of-a-kind jewelry for Schiaparelli from the 1930s until the early 1950s when the fashion designer retired. Our brooch was most likely made for a fashion-show debut of one of Schiaparelli's themed clothing collections in the late 1930s for which she commissioned many costume-jewelry paruriers including Baretti. See our photo of a Schiaparelli 1930s...

The pendant in the shape of a ladybug with open wings, can be worn both as a pendant and as a brooch. The ladybug is decorated with transparent enamels of various colors. Its manufa...

18ct gold & silver set Art Nouveau Diamond Opal Pendant/Brooch dated circa 1900 Five round opals with an articulated pear shaped opal drop, very well matched with lively play of colours and iridescence in reds, greens, blues and gold. Set in 18 carat yellow gold claw collets Two main transitional cut (old mine) diamonds 0.70ct. Mix of old mine and rose cut diamonds in an 18 carat yellow gold with “silver Set” channel setting , approx 1 ct total. G/H/I, VS2-SI2. Total diamond weight: approx 1.7carats Setting diamonds in gold with a thin layer of silver, “silver set”, was a technique used in the Georgian/Victorian/Art Nouveau period as white coloured gold and platinum were not yet available. A very thin layer of silver was applied to the gold, on which the diamonds were set, to show them off to their best advantage (as the yellow would reflect and distort the white colour of the diamonds). The Art Nouveau period was a short lived but worldwide movement which reached its peak at the end of the 19th Century and the first decade of the 20th Century. It had its roots in the Pre Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts movements in Britain in the 1860’s. Artists, such as William Morris, took their inspiration from the flora and fauna of nature and rejected the mass industrialisation and mechanisation of the Victorian age. Art Nouveau continued with this theme and has a distinctive appearance with soft, curved shapes and lines and often depicted natural designs such as flowers, birds and the female form. Before the Art Nouveau period, the emphasis had been to design pieces with an emphasis on gem stones, diamonds, rubies emeralds etc. However, during the Art Nouveau period, jewellers adopted the idea of using other semi–precious stones “from nature” such as agate, garnet opal, moonstone, aquamarine and experimented with a wide variety of new techniques e.g. enamelling. The “New Art” style became a worldwide movement encompassing all disciplines of the arts, and world class artists as far afield as Gaudi with his “modernisme” architecture in Spain, Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York with objects, Galle Glass in France and the Liberty & Co Archibald Knox designs in Britain, Jugendstil in Northern Europe and Faberge in Russia. The movement flared brightly but briefly and by 1910 it was already going out of style to be replaced by Art Deco. In fitted period box. Detachable 18ct brooch...

Victorian Pendant/Brooch in 15 carat yellow gold with rubies, pearls and diamonds in a starburst floral design, circa 1850 15 carat gold Ceylon rubies, half pearls and diamond set. Rubies, Ceylon, natural untreated, 0.6ct total (approx) Half Pearls, natural “Gulf” Pearls...

Art deco pearls adorn this 14K gold triangular brooch/pendant decorated with floral motifs. Can be worn as a brooch, or attached to a chain and worn as a pendant. ... Tags, Marks, ...

This antique cameo heart with diamond pin is made of 14K yellow gold. It contains a round diamond weighing 0.01 CTTW.

This antique cameo pin and pendant with heart bezel is made of 14K yellow gold. Measurements are 2" H x 3/4" W.