Jennifer Tonkin
Co-Head of Department UK
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 96
AN ELEGANT DIAMOND FLOWER BROOCH, BY CARTIER, CIRCA 1955
12 November 2020, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£150,000 - £200,000
Looking for a similar item?
Our Jewellery specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
AN ELEGANT DIAMOND FLOWER BROOCH, BY CARTIER, CIRCA 1955
The single bloom set with an old brilliant-cut diamond, weighing 16.12 carats, within a surround of openwork petals set with brilliant-cut diamonds, on a baguette-cut diamond stem issuing brilliant, single and step-cut diamond buds and leaves, remaining diamonds approximately 10.05 carats total, signed Cartier London, length 8.2cm
Footnotes
The present lot is accompanied by Cartier's original design drawing and a report from GCS stating that the diamond weighing 16.12 carats is N-R colour, VS1 clarity. Report number 79193-16, dated 20 December 2018.
The design of this flower brooch is very similar to the Williamson diamond brooch in the Royal Collection (RCIN 200146, see de Guitaut, C., 'Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration', London, 2012, ill. pp 100 - 103), which represents a jonquil flower and features a flawless pink diamond, weighing 23.60 carats. The original rough was extracted from the Mwadui mine in Tanzania and given to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip as a wedding gift by Dr John Thorburn Williamson.
In 1952, the Royal couple commissioned Cartier to create a floral setting and Frederick Mew was responsible for the design. It was not until the 1940s, that Cartier produced more naturalistic interpretations of flowers, with Frederick Mew in London and Peter Lemarchand in Paris leading the way (see Nadelhoffer, H., 'Cartier', London, 1984, p.187). Mew was a gifted designer and watercolourist adept at drafting realistic studies of flowers. The remaining baguette, brilliant and marquise-cut diamonds were also gifted to Princess Elizabeth by Dr Williamson for setting the stem, petals and leaves and the brooch was completed in the Queen's coronation year. The Cartier design in the Royal Collection is a clear derivative of the brooch illustrated here, which features a large diamond as the principal stone with openwork petals and a more elaborately realised stem.