Antique Belle Epoque Diamond and Pearl Garland Brooch

Antique jewellery object group: combined brooch-pendant

Condition: very good condition

Country of origin: unknown

Style: Belle √âpoque – The Belle √âpoque (French for “Beautiful Era”) was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the time of the French Third Republic and theGerman Empire, the “Belle √âpoque” was named in retrospect, when it began to be considered a “golden age” the major powers of Europe, new technologies improved lives and the commercial arts adapted Renaissance and eighteenth-century styles to modern forms. In the newly rich United States, emerging from the Panic of 1873, the comparable epoch was dubbed the Gilded Age. In the United Kingdom, this epoch overlaps the end of what is called the Victorian Era there and the period named the Edwardian Era.

Style specifics: The Belle √âpoque (French for “Beautiful Era”) was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century from the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and lasted until World War I (1914-18).

Occurring during the time of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, the “Belle √âpoque” was named in retrospect, when it began to be considered a “golden age” the major powers of Europe, new technologies improved lives and the commercial arts adapted Renaissance and eighteenth-century styles to modern forms.

In the newly rich United States, emerging from the Panic of 1873, the comparable epoch was dubbed the Gilded Age. In the United Kingdom, this epoch overlaps the end of what is called the Victorian Era there and the period named the Edwardian Era.

In the Belle √âpoque cheap coal and cheap labour contributed to the cult of the orchid and made possible the perfection of fruits grown under glass, as the apparatus of state dinners extended to the upper classes; champagne was perfected during the Belle √âpoque. Exotic feathers and furs were more prominently featured in fashion than ever before, as haute couture was invented in Paris, the centre of the Belle √âpoque, where fashion began to move in a yearly cycle; in Paris restaurants such as Maxim’s achieved a new splendour and cachet as places for the rich to parade, and the Op√©ra Garnier devoted enormous spaces to staircases as similar show places.

After mid-century, railways linked all the major cities of Europe to spa towns like Biarritz and Deauville; their carriages were rigorously divided into first-class and second-class, but the super-rich now began to commission private railway coaches, as exclusivity was a hallmark of opulent luxury. Bohemian lifestyles gained a different glamour, pursued in the cabarets of Montmartre.

Period: ca. 1910

Material: platinum (and an 18ct pink gold needle)

Diamond(s): 5 big and 86 smaller rose cut diamonds and senailles. A senaille is a simplified rose cut diamond, a small diamond chip with perhaps a few polished facets. We do not have the weight of the rose cuts diamonds nor the senailles which is normal in our trade when it comes to rose cut diamonds and senailles.

Total diamond count: 91 pcs.

Precious stones: One drop pearl

Birthstones: Diamond is the birthstone (or month stone) for April and pearl for June.

Hallmarks: No trace.

Dimensions: width 3,85 cm (1,52 inch)

Weight: 6,80 gram (4,37 dwt)