Antique Diamond Brooch With Brown Old European Cut Solitaire, Around 1910

Glittering diamonds, luminous gold and bright platinum are the materials that jewellery dreams are made of. The brooch presented here shows the harmonious interplay of these materials. It was created in the early years of the 20th century in one of Europe's metropolises and found its way to us from Bremen, Germany. The time of its creation, the Belle Époque, was a carefree era, a celebration of the beauty of life. The fashions and the balls of the great cities of all Europe were very much alike, one last time before the terrible wars. People looked forward to the future, and luxury and lust for life were to be the guideposts of that future. During this time, one loved sparkling jewellery made of high-quality materials, which should shine in bright white. The shapes were mostly classic, calm and elegant: no extremes, no experiments. A worldly neo-classicism united the taste in all metropolises of the continent. The brooch follows this ideal and is designed as a horizontal bar. A wide band of polished platinum frames a row of diamonds and small laurel leaves. One large old European cut diamond occupies the center of the design. The diamond weighs 1.25 ct and glows in a warm brown hue. It is a natural, untreated stone, as confirmed by an independent certificate. The front side is entirely platinum. The reverse side, on the other hand, is made of gold. This was the typical procedure of the time, as platinum was so exceptionally rare and precious that it was (still) almost never used for massive pieces of jewellery. Quietly, we still think we can hear the violins of a ball band when we look at the piece of jewellery. Late at night, in the moonlight and under the glittering firmament: what might this brooch have seen, what has it experienced?

Estimate:£5,212.25

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