Butterfly brooch

Butterfly brooch

Duval & Le Turcq

Butterfly brooch in gold, paillon enamel in two shades of blue, set with rose cut diamonds and one old mine cut diamond. Signed: Duval & Le Turcq. In original box of Maison Botherau, Nantes. Paris, ca. 1889

Size: 5.0 x 3.0 cm.

Julien Duval (b. 1865) and Georges Le Turcq (b. 1859) became friends at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris where they both studied. They established their business in 1885 and were celebrated for their extraordinary series of enameled orchid and butterfly jewels. They exhibited their striking organic works of art at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, which contributed to the ��´Orchidmania��´ of the time and caused a craze for the jewels throughout the late 19th century. They had a similar success with a series of ��´medal��´ jewels, which became very popular in France and abroad. In 1894 their partnership ended. This butterfly brooch is a fine example of their work in 1889, for which they were, and still are, highly praised.


Instagram:
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story ‘The artist of the beautiful’, a watch maker tries his hand at something different, he makes a decorated box with a robotic butterfly inside, as a wedding present for his secret love Annie (who married someone else). We are talking 1844... this butterfly in gold, paillonné enamel and diamonds was made a few years later, in France. Hawthorne wrote that happiness is a butterfly,r which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. And so we wish you a Happy Easter! And please come by our shop to see this beloved piece with your own eyes this spring. Signed: Duval & Le Turcq, Paris, it comes in the original box of Maison Botherau from Nantes. 

Type:    Brooches
Country:    France
Period:    1750 - 1900
Ref number:    4888
Status:    Sold

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