Nouveau Livre de Desseins contenant les Ouvrages de la Joaillerie inventes et dessines par L. van der Cruycen en 1770, No. 5

Rectangular sheet of paper containing an engraving with a design for a chatelaine, two designs for small brooches, a design for a large bouquet brooch, and a design for a headpiece or diademe that forms the fifth page for a book of jewelry designs invented and created by L. van der Cruycen in 1770. The book, titled "Nouveau Livre de Desseins contenant les Ouvrages de la Joaillerie..." (New Book of Designs containing the Jewelry Works), contains a series of jewelry designs displaying a serendipitous flavor, with asymmetrical forms, "rocaille" and stylized natural motifs, and heavily decorated with flowers, ribbons and tassels, thus representing the taste of the Rococo style, which was fashionable in France and Europe during the eighteenth century. The designs present elaborately carved forms that were particularly sought after during the third quarter of the eighteenth century, which were to be accomplished by skilled artisans who would work out the decorations by hand. The use of various categories of jewelry design in one single sheet suggests an economical use of space for the publication of the book, which was probably intended for distribution among goldsmiths and silversmiths that would reproduce the objects from the drawings. It is also likely that many of the designs are real-sized.
The design for a chatelaine consists of an oval motif framed by a garland of flowers interlaced with a ribbon, three smaller oval motifs separated by tiny bowshapes and framed by a thin garland of flowers and flower buds with an interlacing ribbon, and a larga roundel that hangs from the garland of leaves and flowers, tied by a bowknot of ribbon. All the oval motifs are shaded to illustrate volume, and are surrounded by a plain frame, possibly suggesting that they were meant to be cabochon precious or semi-precious stones over a fine metal setting. The large roundel might also have some volume, and would have been made most likely out of metal.
The two small brooches contain small bundles of flowers and leaves, which, in one of them, rest upon a tiny cornucopia.
The large bouquet brooch contains a bundle of leaves and small flowers tied together by a small ribbon, as well as two large flowers, one of them flanked by a palmette-like motif.
The diademe contains interlacing garlands of leaves and flowers that frame three larger stylized flowers. Each one of the stylized flowers is different, which might suggest a possibility of different variants for the design, giving the customer or the goldsmith the opportunity to choose among the different options. However, because elaborate naturalistic motifs with all sorts of flowers and leaves was highly fashionable during the time, there is also a possibility that the use of three different types of flowers was how the design was conceived.