Platinum and diamond temple brooch, Cartier France
Platinum and diamond temple brooch, Cartier France. Photo Sotheby's
Of architectural inspiration, the temple's dome set with a half moon-shaped diamond weighing approximately .75 carat, accented by trapezoidal-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 1.40 carats and baguette diamonds weighing approximately 2.10 carats, further decorated with smaller variously-cut diamonds weighing approximately .90 carat, signed Cartier, Made in France, numbered 02577 and 7569, with French assay and partial maker's marks; circa 1930. Estimation 30,000 — 50,000 USD
Cartier’s temple brooches, first introduced at the famed Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925, rank among the firm’s most iconic designs. Their diminutive size—sweetly at odds with the structures they represent—accentuates their exquisite construction, rendered meticulously and exclusively in diamonds and platinum. The brooches take on a variety of configurations within the relatively strict vocabulary of the temple form, from Japanese pagodas to neo-classicaltemples d’amour, to the occasional Taj Mahal. Each example invited the designer to challenge the gem-cutter who, in turn, entrusted the gem-setter to assemble thesepetits tours de force of jewelry making. The form also lent itself perfectly to the incorporation of one of Cartier’s greatest innovations, the baguette cut, introduced in 1912. These small diamond rectangles created the columns and capitals that support the brooch’s superstructure: rhomboid lintels leading to half-moon domes terminating in lozenge-shaped finials. By the 1930s, this battery of cutting styles became a cornerstone of contemporary jewelry design, making the temple brooch a miniature codex for the Art Deco period.
Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels.New York | 11 déc. 2013 - www.sothebys.com