Nouveau Livre de Desseins contenant les Ouvrages de la Joaillerie inventes et dessines par L. van der Cruycen en 1770, No. 8

Rectangular sheet of paper containing an engraving with designs for brooches, an aigrette, and a headpiece or diademe that forms the eighth 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 plate contains a design for an impressive brooch made of large flowers surrounded by garlands of smaller flowers and leaves, interlaced by a ribbon, and held together by a large ribbon rosette, a smaller flower brooch consisting of a large flower surrounded by thin garlands of leaves and small flowers that interlace around the large flower to form an oval, and two small brooches, one made up of a tiny trophy motif decorated with a tiny garland of leaves and a ribbon that forms a bowshape on top of the trophy motif, and the other made up of a tiny bundle of flowers and leaves. There is also a large bouquet brooch containing branches with leaves and flowers tied together by a bowknot on the bottom right of the deisgn, with two loving birds resting on one of the middle branches, as well as an aigrette formed with branches of stylized leaves, wheat ears and exotic flowers that are tied together by a ribbon bowknot. Finally, there is a headpiece of diademe with a large stylized flower from which interlacing garlands of leaves, stylized flowers, and fruit motifs emerge, decorated by an interlacing ribbon.