Lot 40. An Art Deco diamond bracelet, by Henri Picq. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price Realised USD 75,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2016. 

Designed as a series of old-cut diamond open rectangular-shaped links, joined by old-cut diamond horizontal links, circa 1920, 6 7/8 ins., with French assay marks for platinum. With maker's mark for Henri Picq, no. 28758

Note: The firm of Henri Picq was among the principal Parisian workshops for exquisitely made jewelry in the early part of the 1900s. It is known that Picq created pieces almost exclusively for Cartier at the turn of the century and remained one of their top suppliers throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Many of Cartier’s greatest examples of Art Deco jewelry were manufactured in Picq’s workshop, including important ‘tutti frutti’ jewels that featured carved rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

Lot 40 is a fine example of Henri Picq’s workmanship. The present owner received the bracelet from her grandmother, who had received it from her mother, Yvonne Patenôtre, wife of Boniface de Castellane. Her husband, de Castellane, was the son of a French nobleman, Boni de Castellane, and Anna Gould, American socialite and daughter of railroad magnate Jay Gould.

The present owner’s great grandmother, Mrs. Yvonne Patenotre, wearing Lot 40 to a royal London ball in the 1930s.

Christie's. Magnificent Jewels, 7 December 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza