Antique Diamond and Enamel Brooch in Silver on Gold, French, c. 1910

"The swan is the bird now most prominent in jewelry," read a fashion report in 1893: "Its shapely suggestiveness is seen everywhere." In Western iconography, the swan, gliding in silent dignity above its reflection in the water, has long been a symbol of transitions, of love, but also of transience: the swan song, the alleged song of the swan before its death, is also a common expression for the last works of great poets or artists. How fitting, then, that the motif was popular in jewellery at the turn of the century - a time that was conscious of being at a zenith of refinement and artistic creation, and was accordingly characterized by a special sensitivity to the transience of beauty. The outbreak of the First World War finally proved this feeling right and brought the "beautiful era", the Belle Époque, to an abrupt end. As if to defy this fear of transience, the swan motif was captured here forever in diamonds and luxurious metals. An emerald-eyed swan feathered with diamonds, its body gleaming in white mother-of-pearl in the tradition of Kunstkammer objects, glides over a strip of shimmering water-blue enamel. Water lily leaves and reeds form a loose yet artistic frame beneath. The fine workmanship of the design, its preciousness, the motif, but also the artistic and unusual composition, which looks more like a work of art, make the brooch a rare jewel. As the hallmarks show, the swan was made in Paris no earlier than 1906, but was later traded in the Netherlands before we were finally able to discover it in Munich. A rare object that wonderfully represents the swan song of the Belle Époque. [Anon.], 'Novelties', The Neihart Herald, October 21, 1893, n. p. (p. 4).

Estimate:£5,929.02

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