Lot 12
A ruby, emerald, enamel and diamond rose brooch, by Lacloche Frères, circa 1925
5 December 2018, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £56,250 inc. premium
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A ruby, emerald, enamel and diamond rose brooch, by Lacloche Frères, circa 1925
The openwork elliptical plaque pavé-set with single-cut diamonds, each side decorated with a rose in bloom composed of buff-top calibré-cut rubies with calibré-cut emerald leaves, the interior edges of the plaque rendered as black enamel stems with buff-top calibré-cut ruby thorns, mounted in platinum, signed Lacloche Frères, numbered 67934, workshop mark, French assay marks, length 6.1cm
Footnotes
This brooch is a beautiful example of the early 1920s vogue for pictorial jewels and of Lacloche Frères' exquisite execution of design. The recently invented 'tallow-cutting' technique allowed highly skilled jewellers to cut richly coloured gemstones into small buff-top cabochons, which could be intricately and studiously placed to 'paint' a picture across a jewel. This technique was particularly suited to display scenes of exotic taste, often in bracelet form and examples by Lacloche Frères have been celebrated. Among many figurative and naturalistic motifs, roses proved to be popular. For an example of a pictorial rose jewel by Van Cleef & Arpels see Posseme, Évelyne, 'Van Cleef & Arpels: The Art of High Jewellery', Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris 2012, p.75.
