Elegant Necklace with Untreated Sapphire & Diamonds in Platinum, c. 1910

In the early 20th century, an interesting development took place that expanded the range of gemstones available in Europe to include a particular type that had not been available before: engraved and muggle-cut gemstones with vertical holes, known as beads. Indian princes had brought large quantities of historical gemstones to Paris, where they were processed into new creations. The houses of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels in particular worked for the Indian upper class. Indian gemstones became popular in Europe at the time and were particularly appreciated during the Art Deco era with its preference for the exotic. This necklace presents us with a simple pendulum with a large, natural sapphire attached to the end. The pierced and muggle-shaped stone, weighing around 7.50 ct, is held in place by a platinum cap set with ten small diamonds. A pendulum composed of further, individually set diamonds leads to a larger old-cut diamond, to which a delicate anchor chain is attached. Here again, small diamonds are set to make the otherwise simple chain sparkle. As pierced gemstones are uncommon in European gemstone processing, but were part of the jewel design in the Indian principalities, we assume that the sapphire used here was originally processed in India, then came to Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and became the starting point for this fine necklace. We discovered this piece of jewellery in Munich.

Estimate:£5,929.02

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