Donald Claflin for Tiffany & Co. | Ruby and Diamond Brooch | Donald Claflin 蒂芙尼紅寶石配鑽石別針

Auction Closed

December 7, 08:52 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property of a Private Collector

Donald Claflin for Tiffany & Co. | Ruby and Diamond Brooch

Designed as a Chinese dragon, set throughout with round and single-cut diamonds, the eyes accented with cabochon rubies, the tongue set with a pear-shaped ruby, completed by articulated spicules along the spine, signed Tiffany & Co., numbered 17001; circa 1968. With signed box.

For a brooch of identical design, see Tiffany's 20th Century: A Portrait of American Style by John Loring, page 182.

#TheBroochisBack

Is the brooch back? Was it ever really out? Perhaps just waiting in the wings for a second act.

Without question, the brooch is the purist form of the jeweler’s art. It offers a totally unencumbered opportunity for expression without the constraints of fitting to a finger, wrist or neck. It affords great potential for three-dimensional renderings; if you can draw it, you can represent it in a brooch.

In order to embrace the brooch’s full potential, one must remember that it may be worn in a wide variety of ways. No need to stick to the lapel. Empress Elisabeth of Austria dressed her legendary locks with a galaxy of diamond starbursts. Mrs. Cole Porter wore her Cartier scarab brooch as a belt buckle. Princess Ira Fürstenberg wore a series of Tiffany dragon brooches—one offered here as lot 50—draped across her bare belly on gold chains. And who can forget Sarah Jessica Parker securing her GAP cardigan with a cluster of brooches at her hip, or adorning her evening glove at the Met Ball with a line of Victorian stunners?