A textured 18k gold brooch "Thyria" with ruby collet eye.
Solid gold brooch formed as a stylised swan in flight set with a small ruby for the eye. Brooch findings with a white gold double pin and safety clasp. Hallmarks: Parisian "tête d'aigle" gold fineness, OR 750, maker's mark "Sté C" with a beaver in a rhombus. 6.5 x 4.8 cm. Weight 33.61 g.
Design: Georges Braque 1962, Execution: Henri Michel Baron Heger de Loewenfeld. Paris, ca. 1962.
The bird motif "Thyria" is based on a gouache from 1962 that formed part of Georges Braque's print cycle "Métamorphoses", whose title is borrowed from the ancient poem of the same name by Ovid. The depiction alludes to the fate of Thyria, who was transformed into a swan by Apollo together with their common son Kyknos. The artist developed the limited edition jewellery series "Bijoux de Braque" in the last years of his life (1960 - 1963) in collaboration with his friend, the Parisian sculptor Baron Heger de Loewenfeld, who realised the drawings in three dimensions. The collection was presented to the public in the exhibition "Cent bijoux de Georges Braque" in the Marsan Pavilion in Paris in March 1963, just a few months before Braque's death
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Literature
Cf. G. Braque, Métamorphoses de Braque - Gouaches Bijoux Sculptures Livres D'art Lithographies, Paris 1989, p. 41, for the printed design protoype. Cf. also a further example auctioned by Christie's Geneva, 21st November 1991, lot 408.