Exquisite 3.20 ct Diamond Negligé Necklace in Platinum on Gold, c. 1915

The blue hour - hardly any other time of day expresses the attitude to life of the Belle Époque better than those last, blue minutes in the mild light of dusk. Like a Rilke poem, Debussy's softly shimmering Suite Bergamasque, or Guerlain's legendary 1912 perfume, L'heure bleue: the Belle Époque was a final celebration of refined, ethereal beauty and receptivity to subtle moods before the great wars brutally swept across Europe. One of the most popular forms of jewellery at the end of the Belle Époque was the negligé necklace with its unevenly long pendants, which took away the austerity and heaviness of even the most precious design and instead lent it a touch of luxurious "laissez-faire". This necklace, which features two large old-cut diamonds of over one carat each as its protagonists, also corresponds to this type. In precisely crafted millegrain settings and with the finest openwork, it combines a total of 3.20 ct of diamonds to create a fantastically beautiful composition in platinum on gold. The necklace was created shortly after 1910: this is revealed not only by its workmanship and diamond cuts, but also in particular by the characteristic shape of the upper element - an upward curve with twisting ends - which can only be traced in various jewellery designs from the early 1910s. We have had an independent appraisal carried out on the necklace, which confirms the quality of the materials. A wonderful, wearable souvenir of days long past.

Estimate:£12,660.94

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