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Art Nouveau Opal and Enamel Pendant Necklace
90-3-4601
ABOUT THIS NECKLACE
This important, dramatic, sizable Art Nouveau drop incorporates the use of opals along with classic iris motifs of the period. We don't know who the maker of this lovely necklace was but they were certainly contemporaries of fine jewelers like Tiffany and Co. and Marcus and Company at the turn of the 20th century. Opals were a newly discovered stone and their similarity to dragonfly wings was certainly an inspiration in jewelry also seen with the use of plique-á-jour enamels. Can't you see a dragonfly buzzing among the irises next to a stream? The main attraction of this opal is the play-of-color and size as the stone itself is a baroque shape hewn from still visible matrix measuring 2 X ¾ inches. The opal is set into the iris and enamel frame and measures 3 X 1 inches including the bale. The pendant is suspended from a chain contemporary to the drop with a renaissance revival motif terminal, slide and clasp embellished with green and blue enamel gathering nine strands of delicate foxtail chains. The necklace is approximately 16 inches long above the slide. This pendant was worn and loved by someone as evidenced by minor enamel damage and a fissure at the tip. Some crazing, common in old opals, is also present.
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