For Admirers of the Arts

Antique Lyre Brooch with Flat Cut Garnets in Gold, c. 1825

€ 1,690.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Antique Lyre Brooch with Flat Cut Garnets in Gold, c. 1825

Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

Brooches in the musical form of the lyre were a favourite with the sophisticated British ladies of the 1820s. They were worn in London in the autumn of 1823 to attach gold chain festoons to the décolleté: ‘A delicate gold chain is worn below the necklace en festons, and fastens up with a brooch, either in the form of a harp, a lyre, or some other elegant emblem, in jewellery or beautiful enamel.’ And as late as 1827, pieces of jewellery ‘of the latest taste and fashion’ were advertised, ‘consisting of [...] harp, lyre, fillagree, and several descriptions of brooches’. Typical of the period, this lyre is set with flat-cut garnets that sparkle intensely in closed, foiled settings. The desire for colour had just returned to jewellery in the 1820s: After many years of classicist restraint, we once again find richly shining gold filigree and colourful, expressive stones in that decade. The lyre motif also created references to antiquity, which was highly fashionable at the time. In ancient Greece, the lyre could accompany the recitation of epics or poetry and was played in particular in honour of the god Apollo, who was also often depicted with this instrument. He is said to have defeated the god Pan in a musical contest with a lyre. In general, however, the instrument is also often used to symbolise the fine arts, because in his role as Apollo Musagetes, the young god was also the leader of the muses. The brooch is in very good condition; its foiled garnets still shine unusually deep and expressive even after two centuries. The quotes after [Anon, from La Belle Assemblée:] London Fashions for October, Saunder's News-Letter and Daily Advertiser, 4 October 1823, p. 1, and The Barbadian, 19 October 1827, p. 1.

Size & Details

For Admirers of the Arts

€ 1,690.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

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