Five platinum brooches formed as swallows - image-1

Lot 569 Dα

Five platinum brooches formed as swallows

Auction 1096 - overview Cologne
16.11.2017, 17:00 - Jewellery
Estimate: 10.000 € - 15.000 €
Result: 16.120 € (incl. premium)

Five platinum brooches formed as swallows

Designed as five swallows in flight pavé set with rose-cut diamonds, each of the eyes accentuated by a ruby. One small diamond lost. Later brooch mountings. L 3.3 cm, 3.3 cm, 4.3 cm, 4.7 cm, 4.7 cm. Total weight 32 g.
Attributed to Friedrich Kreuter, Hanau, ca. 1890.

These swallow brooches were originally fitted with spring mountings and could be attached to an arched pin brooch to form a trembleuse, either as a group, in pairs or alone. A design dated 1890 in the production book of the Kreuter firm in Hanau (as production no. 9326) shows a mirror image version of the design with six birds.
The "Bijouteriefabrik Friedrich Kreuter & Co" was founded in 1842 by the brothers Georg Friedrich and Wilhelm Karl Ludwig Kreuter. They produced fine designs for various court jewellers throughout Germany and the rest of Europe, which is why none of their designs bear their own marks, and instead only the marks of known merchants. They worked particularly closely with Koch, the court jewellers of Hesse, who sold their designs to the international aristocracy in their branches in Frankfurt and Baden-Baden. The Schmuckmanufaktur Kreuter produced over 700 crown jewels up until WWI, including the clover leaf tiara given as a wedding gift by Emperor William II to his wife Auguste Victoria.

Certificate

These five brooches were attributed to the firm of Friedrich Kreuter in Hanau by the jewellery historian Dr. Christianne Weber-Stöber, manager of the Deutsches Goldschmiedhaus Hanau, according to an expertise dated 20.07.2017.

Literature

Cf. Marquardt, Schmuck - Realismus und Historismus, Munich/Berlin 1998, cat. no. 341.

Exhibitions

Exhibited in "Juwelen für die mondäne Welt - 175 Jahre Friedrich Kreuter & Co. Hanau", 23.3. - 30.6. 2016, Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau.