An Antique Jewelled and Enamelled Dragonfly Brooch by Boucheron

An Antique Jewelled and Enamelled Dragonfly Brooch by Boucheron.

Finely modelled in yellow gold as a dragonfly, its plique-a-jour enamel in a graduated palette of blue to green bordered with diamonds and mounted en-tremblant, so that they gently flutter whilst the brooch is in wear,  the thorax and tail set with diamonds, the head of green enamel with a diamond finial.

Paris, circa 1900.

See ‘Boucheron, Five Dynasties of a World Renowned Jeweller’ by Gilles Néret, page 25 for an identical dragonfly brooch,  dated c.1880-90.  It was exhibited at ‘French Jewellery of the Nineteenth Century’ at Wartski, 2001, no. 155.

A third such example has come to light, forming part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection(accession number 2018.447.1, gallery 556) and survives in its original case.  Records refer to the maker as Edgar Bense, a Danish craftsman who supplied jewellery to the most distinguished jewellery retail houses including Lacloche and Boucheron.  Designs for such jewels survive in the archive as early as 1879 and the original brooch fittings were detachable so that they could be replaced with a pin, enabling the jewel to be worn in the hair where the transparency of the wings of the insect could be seen to full advantage.

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance