Sent to auction as part of a house clearance in a box of scrap gold, unmounted gemstones and watches that were to be sold without reserve, the brooch was spotted by Essex auction house Chalkwell Auctions when they began sorting through the ‘odds and ends’. The vendors, who had thought it was a piece of costume jewellery, had no idea of is history. But the auctioneers did.
The corsage brooch had been designed by Alphonse Mucha, one of the great names of Art Nouveau, for jeweller Georges Fouquet – another of the great names of Art Nouveau.
Fouquet, the renowned French jeweller, and Mucha, the Czech graphic artist, created a series of Art Nouveau jewels that provided the centrepiece of Fouquet’s stand at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. According to the UK trade newspaper Antiques Trade Gazette, some speculated that the brooch may be the ‘lost’ jewel exhibited at the Paris exhibition that was hitherto known only from archival photographs.
‘The central vellum miniature of a female figure holding a flower appears to be a good match,’ writes Roland Arkell in the ATG. ‘In other examples (four others are known) she is shown holding a quill pen. The original watercolour designs by Mucha formed part of an exhibition devoted to his work held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1980. Both were formerly in the collection of Georges Fouquet.’ The gold, enamel and gemset brooch sold for $48,000.
For more on gorgeous Art Nouveau designs see the cover feature in the upcoming Spring issue of Antiques to Vintage, on sale from September 1 or available directly by subscription. https://antiquestovintage.com.au/subscribe/print/
