Neo-classical gold necklace with enamel, pearls and diamonds

18-karat gold necklace with enamel, pearls, and diamonds, can also be worn as a brooch, in original case. In neo-Louis XVI style.

Gariod, Léon French jeweler. In 1875 he merged with the firm founded in 1859 by Gaucher and Tonnelier at 29, rue Saint-Augustin, Paris, and in 1884 he registered the business under his own name. At first he was known as a specialist in gold chains and flexible bracelets set with precious stones. From 1897 to about 1905, he collaborated with designer and modeler Léopold Albert Marin Gautrait on pendants and brooches in the Art Nouveau style. Henri Vever described these as “charming works of rare perfection in which chasing and enameling play a large part,” and he praised their “great refinement.” Gariod also executed designs by Joë Descomps during this period. Gariod and Gautrait continued to collaborate until 1920, but after 1905 Gautrait abandoned Art Nouveau for Louis XVI-revival designs. Some of their works may have been retailed by other jewelers, such as Vever. Gautrait, Léopold Albert Marin1865-1937French sculptor and designer. He studied with M. Rouffosse at the École des beaux-arts, Paris, and exhibited a wax model for a gilt-bronze vase at the 1894 Salon des artistes français. From 1897 to about 1905, he designed and chased jewelry in the Art Nouveau style for the jeweler Léon Gariod. The majority of these pieces were pendants and brooches in finely chased gold and enamel, with precious stones used as accents. Gautrait’s jewels are distinguished by their crisp, lively quality and by his ability to seamlessly integrate into his designs multiple loops for attaching chains and pendant drops. Many necklaces also feature a starburst element above the main pendant. Although some extant pieces are marked only with Gautrait’s signature (without Gariod’s maker’s mark), most of these are thought to have been made by Gariod. Around 1905 Gautrait began to work in a Louis XVI-revival style, and he appears to have sold most of the models for his Art Nouveau designs to a German jeweler in Pforzheim (some of these were reissued in the 1970s). Gautrait worked with Gariod until 1920 and continued to make pieces for private clients until 1930.