Antique diamond brooch of the Biedermeier period, around 1830

Jewellery with diamonds was in all centuries a special privilege of the nobility and exceptionally rich citizens. The difficulties of mining and cutting the precious stones made the white shining treasures always rare and expensive. No wonder that diamond jewellery was therefore brought to the goldsmith again and again with beautiful regularity, rebuilt, renewed and adapted to the latest fashions. To find an antique diamond jewel of substantial size and in wonderful condition is, against this background, a particularly rare coincidence - but the brooch presented here gives us this pleasure. The brooch of gold with a front of silver is designed in the form of a moving bouquet. A large flower, perhaps a feathered carnation, stands in the center of the design. A large diamond of exceptional clarity in a cushion-shaped old cut occupies the center of the blossom. The petals are set with other diamonds of similar cut. To the right, left and below the large flower are staggered leaves. Dynamically moving, as if blown by a gust of wind, they frame the blossom in a large arc. Their surfaces are also set with diamonds, which immerse the brooch in an enchanting play of light. Nature was the most popular model for jewellery designs in the first half of the 19th century. After the cool, geometric symmetry of the classicism of the turn of the century, the designs now became more asymmetrical, more moving, and full of surprising details. This development in the field of jewellery corresponds to similar ideas in the Romantic period of literature and art. So it was no longer the imperial splendour of Napoleon's time that was now the reference, but the forms of nature, seen through models from the more intimate world of the Rococo and even more distant times such as the Middle Ages. Unlike the actual jewellery of the past, however, Biedermeier jewellery always retains its own powerful physicality, a heaviness of form that clearly distinguishes it from jewellery of the Rococo period, for example. Our brooch was created in the years around 1830. The cuts of the diamonds and their open back settings, which allow a lot of light to reach the stones, prove this on a technical side. At the same time, comparisons with pieces of jewellery illustrated in the literature prove that it was made in this period, cf. among others Brigitte Marquardt:Schmuck. Klassizismus und Biedermeier, 1780-1850, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Munich 1983, 230, no. 288, as well as p. 232, also David Bennet and Daniela Mascetti: Understanding Jewellery, Woodbridge 2010, p. 60. The brooch is in first-class condition. At the end of the 19th century, the mounting on the back was renewed with the brooch and two pendant loops. It is possible that the jewel was previously to be worn as a hair comb. We were able to acquire it from a private collection.

Stima:€4,980

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