Antique Art Nouveau pendant and long sautoir chain. 14k gold, pearls, diamonds, plique-à-jour enamel. Made circa 1895 - 1905 most likely in the USA. See note on marks and origin below.
Measurements:
Weight is 28.78 grams. Chain is slightly over 52 inches (a little over 132cm) long. Pendant is 1 5/8 inches (4.5cm) from wing tip to wing tip. Jump rings add about 1.5cm to each side.
Pearls 3.65-3.85mm.
Description :
At the heart of this pendant is a naturalistically modelled fairy or young woman mid-dance — bare-footed, her expression and hair delicately rendered. Her figure transitions skillfully from low relief at the hem to fully sculptural three-dimensionality at the torso and face. She is draped in a diaphanous Empire-style gown, favored by Art Nouveau artists, through which the body is at once revealed and idealized.
Behind her spreads a magnificent pair of butterfly wings — gently waving, naturalistically formed, and alive with translucent plique-à-jour enamel in soft pink and green set in gold. Plique-à-jour is among the most demanding of all enameling techniques, requiring the enamel to be suspended without a metal backing, like a miniature stained-glass window. Adding further to the jeweler's achievement, old-cut diamonds are set in gold collets and interspersed throughout the wings, catching the light against the luminous enamel ground.
The outer upper points of the wings are fitted with loops and short connecting chains that attach to jump rings, allowing the pendant to be worn on nearly any chain. The sautoir itself may also be looped multiple times through these links, offering versatile wearing options.
The sautoir's generous length — just over 52 inches — lends itself to endless configurations: worn long, doubled, or looped through the pendant's wing-tip links. It is composed of small gold links interspersed with foliate stations of gold-encased green plique-à-jour enamel, each alternating with small pearls.
Marks and Metal:
The figure is marked 14k at the base; the jump rings bear tiny 585 marks (the European equivalent for 14k gold). Electronic testing reads slightly higher than 14k, though we defer to the engraved marks. We believe the jump rings were later additions.
Condition:
Good with negligible wear commensurate with age. Enamel in very good condition considering its age - possibly some very minor bruises, but nothing that can be seen with the naked eye and no losses. Please see enlarged pictures and don't hesitate to ask questions which we will do our best to answer.
THE STORY:
Elongated, nymph-like women and fairies were among the most beloved subjects of the Art Nouveau era — figures caught in a dreamlike state of transformation, becoming one with the natural world around them. The most visionary jewelry designers of the period embraced this theme with full creative abandon, dissolving the boundary between the human form and the creatures of forest, water, and sky. Figures transformed from human to insect, metamorphosing naturally and inevitably, as though the boundary between species had always been an illusion.
The greatest protagonist of this style was, of course, René Lalique, whose work could be breathtaking and deeply unsettling in equal measure. Many talented designers followed his lead on both sides of the Atlantic. In America, these winged and wandering figures were interpreted with a lighter hand — the symbolism retained, but the mood softened into something more lyrical and wearable. This exquisite pendant is very much in that tradition: a woman emerging into butterfly, more poetry than provocation, and all the more enduring for it.
She is suspended from a long plique-à-jour and pearl gold chain — itself a work of extraordinary delicacy, the translucent enamel cells glowing like stained glass in motion.
