Brooch of a Parure

Description In France in the 1830s and 40s machine-stamped jewelry of modest intrinsic value became popular. Characteristic is this parure or matching suite that includes a segmented collier or short necklace, a pair of long pendant earrings, two brooches, and an elongated belt-clasp. The pieces are bordered by foliate scrollwork in stamped gold. Each in enameled black and set with half-pearls, emeralds and diamond sparks in clawed, silver collets, arranged in rosettes and lozenges. This jewelry is very light in weight and is composed of two layers of stamped metal, fastened by pins. Preserved with the jewelry is its case in scarlet, straight-grained, morocco leather with symmetrical designs in narrow line gouges and decorative, small toolwork, some picked out with colored inlays.

Exhibitions

• Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979-1980.
• Objects of Adornment: Five Thousand Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 1984-1987.
• Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery and the Zucker Family Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987.
• Pearls. American Museum of Natural History, New York; The Field Museum, Chicago; Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta; Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston; Midland Center for the Arts, Midland; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. 2001-2005.

Provenance Nelson and Juanita Greif Gutman; given to Walters Art Museum, 1963.

Credit Bequest of Nelson and Juanita Greif Gutman, 1963