Eight designs for brooches with natural motifs

F. Mellerio Borgnis

Not on view

Drawing with eight designs for brooches (?), part of an album of drawings in pen and ink of designs for jewelry in the style of the French School of the 19th century, designed for the French jewelry house Mellerio-Borgnis. The first design is made up of a scrolling oval frame of gold, holding a stylized, green leaf and four round pearls. The second consists of a scrolling motif of gold, with an interlacing garland of stylized, green leaves and round pearls, ending with a teardrop-shaped pink-ish pearl, flaked above by three small, green, stylized leaves and a tiny round pearl. The third design is made up of an inverted 8-shape of gold, flanked to the sides by two C-curves, with a stilyzed, green fleur-de-lis in the center, three rings with red borders interlacing the upper part of the 8-shape, and a strip of three round pearls of decreasing diameter hanging from its lower part. The fourth design is made up of a thin gold branch with round pearls and an interlacing, elongated, green leaf. The fifth design is made up of interlacing gold scrolls ending in fleur-de-lis motifs, with inner blue borders. The sixth design is made up of a gold frame with a vertical 8-shaped loop in the center, containing round pearls and small, stylized, green leaves. The seventh design consists of an 8-shaped gold motif, flanked by two C-curves to the sides, forming a kind of quatrefoil, which contains scrolling branches with stylized, green leaves and a pearl on each of its loops. The final design is made up of an oval gold ring, interlaced by a green "ribbon", from which hang semi-abstract gold leaves and strips of semi-abstract flower buds, outlined with red. The red outlines might suggest the use of rose-gold or some copper alloy, while the green and blue might suggest the use of enamel or stone inserts in the manufactured jewel.

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