Elegant Déco Palladium Bracelet with Diamonds & Sapphires, c. 1940

Bracelets were a great fashion of the Déco period. "There was never a time when bracelets were as popular as they are today. It seems as if every girl and woman wears a bracelet, and many ladies of good taste wear two and even more in attractive combinations," reads an American catalog from around 1925. The classic designs of the era were white and richly set with diamonds: either as infinite followers of identical links, or designed as a bracelet with an accentuated center. Millegrifes and fine shadow gaps structure the individual elements, and sometimes individual colored stones are added as additional accents. This bracelet corresponds exactly to this fashion. It features a centerpiece that swings outwards on a narrower band of identical repeating links. Transitional-cut diamonds sparkle in the light. The center is further accentuated with four blue sapphires, but the three largest diamonds also add some color to the design: they glow lemon yellow! The material from which the band is made is surprising. It is made of palladium, where you would normally expect platinum. Visually, it looks very similar to platinum with its bright, slightly cool sheen. When worn, however, the other metal is revealed by its weight: palladium weighs only a little more than half as much as platinum for the same volume! The bracelet therefore feels surprisingly light. But of course it is just as stable and secure to wear as a platinum bracelet. Palladium for jewelry production was a new development. The metal, closely related to platinum, has been known since 1805, but was initially only used very rarely. It was only when platinum was needed for the war economy and strictly rationalized that palladium was discovered as an alternative and also used for jewelry production. Numerous pieces of jewelry from this period feature the new metal - until the 1950s, when fashion changed and yellow gold was used again. The use of palladium therefore helps to date the bracelet: It was created in the years around 1940, very probably in Great Britain or the USA. We discovered it in Würzburg,

Estimación:€9,490

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