Art Nouveau Gold, Plique-à-Jour Enamel, Opal and Diamond Pendant-Brooch, circa 1900

Decorated with a spray of three poppies with peach enamel petals and green plique-à-jour enamel leaves, framing a marquise-shaped opal within a scrollwork border set with small rose-cut, old-mine and single-cut diamonds, mounted in 18 karat gold and platinum, maker's mark and assay mark. 

The workshop mark on this brooch, the initials EB flanking a clover leaf, is likely that of Edgar Bense. In French Jewelry of the Nineteenth Century, Henri Vever's three-volume study written in 1906, Bense is mentioned as "among so many others that have created charming jewelry of modern inspiration".