5 Standout Antique Jewels from New Gallery, Hartley Brown

The jewelry in our new gallery, Hartley Brown, is the kind to make converts out of casual antiquers. Rare, of exceptional quality and storied provenance, it’s hard to pick one favorite among the fine antique and period jewelry in the gallery, but here are 5 of their most striking antique jewels. If you’d like to inquire about any of these pieces, you can contact Hartley Brown at Gallery 50, The Manhattan Art & Antiques Center, at 212.247.0600/ hartleybrownllc@aol.com.

A personal favorite, this exquisite Art Nouveau Plique A Jour Pendant was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 and is illustrated in the Books of Paris Exhibitions by Alastair Duncan. It’s easy to see why–it joins the artful delicacy of the best Art Nouveau jewelry to the richness of museum-quality stained glass.

This superb Carnelian Intaglio Pendant is from the collection of Prince Stanislas Poniatowski, 1754-1833. Poniatowski commissioned about 2500 gems from the finest gem engravers of the day and led people to believe the gems to be ancient, while they were in fact modern. Today, they are very valuable in their own right. The majority of the collection sold in Christie’s on April 30, 1839.

The jewel is the star of this French Art Nouveau Pendant Fob. Master designer Paul Louchet hand-chiseled the buff-top tourmaline and 18ct gold pendant or fob, and set it off with beautiful, classic sycamore leaf Art Nouveau motifs, and swiveling feature. This piece is fully signed.

An Art Nouveau Plique A Jour Tie Pin to strike awe in the heart of anyone looking closely enough, the pin features a magnificent grotesque mask with a pearl in its mouth. It was designed by the famed jewelry house, Whiteside and Blank, one of the few manufacturers to offer plique-à-jour enameling.

The unique thing about this Antique Intaglio Necklace of English mount is that it features 19 exquisitely-carved ancient multicolor hard stone intaglios. The necklace is part of a set including, bracelet, earrings, and a ring. You can see a closeup of the piece at the link above, and more pieces from the set on Hartley Brown’s gallery page.