Design for a Gold, Diamond, Pearl, and Enamel Brooch in a Scrapbook with Jewelry Designs in Watercolor and Gouache

Drawing with a design for a gold, diamond, pearl, and enamel brooch, part of a modern scrapbook with 22 sheets showing designs for jewelry with pearls, diamonds and other (semi-)precious stones all done in watercolor and heightened with gold, characteristic of the period between 1970 and 1930, which saw some of the most extravagant and innovative trends in jewelry design. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the naturalistic compositions of earlier decades had become more complex, and the colors in nature mimicked by the color of gemstones used for jewelry design. In the last years of the century, designs for jewelry had become even more elaborate and relied in the natural beauty of cabochon gems, curving, and figurative designs with symbolic meaning, typical of the Arts and Crafts movement. Towards the end of the nineteenth and through the first decades of the twentieth century, diamond jewelry was re-interpreted to create the new 'garland style', and the Art Nouveau movement created sinuous and organic pieces that moved away from conventional stones and put emphasis on the subtle effects of materials such as glass, horn and enamel. During the 1920s, the economic boom following the war saw an increased glamour in jewelry design, with sharp, geometric patterns that celebrated modernity and the machine age. Art Deco jewelry is characterized by dense concentrations of gemstones and the use of platinum in place of gold, with inspiration from all over the world, especially from the Near and Far East.
Like most of the drawings in the album, this design is fully rendered with gouache, showing not only the styles for the jewelry designs, but also suggesting choices of precious metals, stones, and other materials to be used in the creation of the jewels. It is also possible that these designs are real-sized, allowing the customer to visualize the jewel fully from this presentation drawings before commissioning its manufacture.
This design for a brooch is made out of a large gold quatrefoil frame with interlacing motifs with a four-petal rosette made out of a white pearl in the center and diamonds to form the petals inside. This central rosette is framed inside a gold lozenge, which is flanked on the verices by four smaller white pearls with three diamond petals over a black enamel background. From the spaces between the petals of the central rosette emerge four fleur-de-lis motifs that touch the vertices of the quatrefoil frame. The quatrefoil frame is decorated with white pearls, and two gold festoons with interlacing motifs hang from its sides and join at the center of the bottom part of the quatrefoil shape. From this emerges a gold fleur-de-lis motif with interlacing motifs and decorated with a small rosette of four petals with a white pearl in the center and the diamonds to make the petals, and two smaller white pearls. The festoon and this fleur-de-lis motif are decorated with small white pearls and inverted teardrop motifs made out of gold and black enamel; the inverted teardrop motif hanging from the center of the fleur-de-lis is additionally decorated with diamonds. From the sides of the quatrefoil frame hand two additional, slimmer, fleur-de-lis motifs with an interlacing design made out of gold and black enamel, and holding another hanging pearl and inverted teardrop motif.