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Couture ChanelGripoix 1930s PouredGlassAquaFlowerPendants ByzantineChain Parure

$19,000
£14,491.88
€16,502.75
CA$26,700.80
A$29,120.97
CHF 15,426.32
MX$349,119.07
NOK 196,462.81
SEK 179,650.66
DKK 123,291.68

About the Item

This couture Coco-Chanel-commissioned French Maison Gripoix handcrafted early-20th-Century demi-parure features eight flower pendants whose daisy-like metalsmithed petal frames suspend transparent aqua air-bubble-filled poured glass that was cast with the house's characteristic thick-enameling technique. Like fine jewelry, each petal was sculpted from wire before molten glass application (see our photo of the Gripoix process), then welded one by one to radiate from each pendant's center at different angles to appear organic and three dimensional. To seem topped by a white pearl, pate-de-verre was molded into a hemisphere around an unseen central pin. The flower-head pendants are banded to one another and centered between the textural chains of a choker necklace and matching bracelet, which are constructed from interlocking pairs of rings with each ring connected to four others. This complex Byzantine-style chain that fastens with a thumbless ring clasp are among the Gripoix findings of one-of-a-kind jewelry executed for Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, whose couture sets were not consistently branded until the mid-1950s, and even then not all pieces of a parure were signed. When such pieces are unsigned like our demi-parure, it is even more difficult to identify the parurier whom Chanel commissioned to complement one of her couture ensembles for a client. Fortunately we found a glass-flower-pendant design with a matching central faux-pearl pate-de-verre hemisphere floating above irregularly elevated petals published by Editions Gallamard 2010 (see our snapshots of page 62-63) in Lina Baretti Parures by Patrick Mauries, who also wrote the book Jewelry By Chanel. In the former book, the caption for the photo-spread of the necklace and its closeup notes that it was realized by Maison Gripoix under the direction of Baretti around 1950. However, we date our Gripoix-executed demi-parure designed by Baretti to the 1930s and further to Chanel for several reasons: First, the age of the chains is evidenced by the coppery-brown patina for the bronze rings and the microscopic loss of contrasting silver-gilt on the petal frames that can not be replicated. Second, Chanel was renowned for her revival of ancient Byzantine-style metalsmithing for her jewelry since the early 1930s, but closed her couture house from WWII until the mid-1950s. Third, we found a Vogue April 1938 illustration (see our photo) of a Gripoix-executed glass-flower-head brooch that shows the fashion designer's use of the same striking aqua glass for similar elongated petal shapes that were a departure from her favorite camellia motif. Finally, Baretti was a frequent parurier for Chanel since 1930, who repeated her variety of flower-head construction throughout her career--always with just enough variation of shape, color, material or complexity to be considered unique for couture clients.

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