Catalog: Estate Jewelry: Silver: Art Nouveau (7)

A delightfully feisty-looking cat is featured in the French Art Nouveau brooch. We’re particularly fond of his enormously long whiskers that stretch the full width of the pin. The pin is stamped with French silver marks and with an illegible maker’s mark.

NOTE: The pin could be worn as a pendant with the addition of a bail to the back.

• Origin: France, ca. 1905.
• Condition: excellent; all original.
• Dimensions: 1” diameter.
• Weight: 5.4 grams.

This lovely enameled pansy, originally a screwback earring, has been converted to a colorful ring with the addition of sterling silver shank. The pansy is enameled in bright shades of purple and yellow. The enamel has a slight iridescent effect and is translucent so the engraved silver shines through for added texture. In the Victorian language of flowers, the pansy generally conveyed the meaning, “Think of me.” Purple and yellow pansies more specifically meant, “Forget me not.” The back is marked “Sterling.”

• Origin: America, ca. 1930.
• Condition: excellent; no enamel damage.
• Dimensions: 3/4 x 3/4".
• Finger Size: 6 1/4.
• Weight: 3.8 grams.

An elegant Art Nouveau silver brooch depicting a maiden smelling a rose. She is surrounded in a bower of climbing roses and enclosed in a frame of whiplash curves typical of French Art Nouveau. The clasp is marked for silver and bears the maker's mark of Fernand Boursot, who opened shop in Paris in 1894. THe brooch could be converted to a pendant with the addition of a bail at the top or a pair of bails and a split chain at the upper corners.

• France, ca 1895.
• Excellent condition; sharp detail.
• 1" x 15/16".
• 5.1 grams.

A classic Pforzheim school silver Jugendstil brooch decorated with plique-a-jour enamels, moldavite and seed pearls. The translucent enamels have the velvety texture and very subtle coloring typical of many Pforzheim jewels of the period. The reverse is marked "Depose 900" and has the maker's mark for Karl Hermann (Hermann & Speck), one of the leading German Art Nouveau jewelers.

Origin: Germany, ca. 1900. Condition: very good, some light crazing to enamel, but no unstable or missing pieces. Dimension: 1-1/4" x 1-3/8". Weight: 5.2 grams.

A lovely Art Nouveau pendant worked in silver and 10K yellow gold. The pendant consists of an openwork triangular silver plaque with a pair of plique-a-jour enameled mistletoe leaves below a band of opals and above a band of brilliant green moldavites, themselves over a square-cut pink tourmaline suspending a semi-baroque pearl drop. The whole is suspended from a round brilliant cut pink tourmaline set in gold. The combination of colored gemstones is lovely and nicely accents the enamel. The opals have a particularly nice play of color in tones of blue and reddish-orange. The overall design strongly suggests the work of the Pforzheim studios in Germany, but the “Sterling” markings on the back indicate an American origin.

Ca. 1900. Condition: excellent; no enamel damage. Size: 1-5/16” x 2” (to top of bale). Approximate Total Gemstone Weight: tourmaline, .96 ct; opal, .33 ct; moldavite, .20 ct. Weight: 4.4 grams.

A lovely silver, plique-a-jour enamel, mother-of-pearl, and paste pendant in the German Art Jugendstil or Nouveau taste. The pendant is worked with very attractive enameled cells in shades of teal, cream and rose. German Art Nouveau pieces from the Pforzheim school tend to be more linear and symmetrical than those from France, and this piece is a classic example. The use of a collet-set mother-of-pearl oval is the center position is very typical of the work of Otto Prutscher, the leading German Art Nouveau jewelry designer. The back is marked "Depose 900" and is signed "HS" or "SH".

Origin: Germany, ca. 1900. Condition: appears to be converted from a brooch; no enamel damage. Size: 1-1/8" x 1"; chain 16-1/2" long. Weight: 6.3 gr.

Lovely Art Nouveau sterling silver bar pin comprised of three maidens with flowing hair. Each of the faces is cast and is solid. Each is marked "Sterling", as is the c-clasp fastener.

Origin: America, circa 1890. Condition: excellent, all original. Size: 1-11/16" x 9/16". Weight: 6.0 grams.