Six designs for brooches with oval frames
Not on view
Six drawings in graphite of designs for brooches, in the style of the French School of the 19th century, designed for the French jewelry company Mellerio-Borgnis. Each drawing was created on a separate sheet of semi-transparent paper, all adhered to the same page of the album. Five of the designs consist of empty oval frames with different types of scrolling motifs, thin garlands with small,s tylized leaves, round pearls, small rosettes, and sometimes with ribbon motifs and bows. The remaining design, also for an oval frame, contains a bundle of undulating branches with round pearls, and stylized, scrolling, elongated leaves made up of strips of brilliants, and is inside a simple frame with a small scrolling motif on each side, a thin, scrolling branch with three small pearls on the bottom, and a large ribbon that forms loops decorating the upper half of the frame. The physical jewels from these designs would have likely been manufactured using gold or silver, and probably using brilliants, diamonds, or other (semi-) precious stones to add color and shine to the designs.
