Beschreibung:

A FINE ART DECO MOTHER OF PEARL, DIAMOND, JASPER AND BLACK ONYX BRACELET Designed as four inlaid mother-of-pearl plaques depicting various Eastern motifs: a butterfly and flowers, a male figure, a floral branch and a female figure, each enhanced by single, circular and old European-cut diamonds, orange jasper and black onyx, joined by orange jasper and black onyx fancy links, mounted in platinum, with French hallmarks (one small mother-of-pearl section missing), circa 1925--6 7/8 ins. long During the Art Deco period, jewelry designers turned to the arts of India, China and Japan for inspiration, translating exotic images into geometric abstractions. The 1910 Ballets Russes performance of Scheherazade with its Oriental fairy-tale world and the Paris Chinese Opera Ball in 1923 provided a wellspring of new designs and colors. Jewelry designers reinterpreted these new ideas into a western idiom, often capturing the essence of the figure or scene without replicating it in detail. Such is the case with the images on the four inlaid mother-of-pearl plaques on the illustrated bracelet. The vignettes include a scene of a butterfly with flowers, an Oriental figure reclining with a paper screen in the background, a branch with flowers, and an Oriental figure with her head bowed and holding a bottle. Each plaque is bordered by a row of diamonds and connected by links of orange jasper and black onyx. This unusual color combination, also owing its debt to the East, contributes a powerful geometric motif in the best Art Deco style.