The gem-set pendant in the Neo-Renaissance taste was made after a design by Pierre Woeriot (1532-1599) and demonstrates Falize’s predilection for the arts of the sixteenth century. It bears a plaque to the reverse enamelled with the initial ‘F’ flanked by Falize’s motto ‘Quaerens Invenio’, surmounted by the poinçon he had registered with his father in 1875.

Although this unusually elaborate jewel was known from contemporary literature, the identity of its owner has only recently come to light, the pendant forming part of a group of three jewels contained in their original leather cases, each bearing the initials ‘A.G.’ on the lid. Another fitted box holds a pair of tortoiseshell pins suspended with vibrantly enamelled openwork gold spheres while the third, containing a pendant of lozenge form set with grey pearls and diamonds, holds the key: its reverse bears the original label inscribed ‘Madame Gonse’.

Louis Gonse and Lucien Falize had certainly met by 1878, when Falize’s survey of the goldsmiths’ work, jewellery and bronzes exhibited at the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle was published in Gonse’s art periodical; Gonse himself added a Post Scriptum describing the jeweller’s own significant contribution to the Exposition, and continued to praise Falize’s display at further exhibitions.
Their shared interest in Japan is evident in the review by Falize of the vast retrospective exhibition of Japanese works of art organized by Gonse in 1883, and in his positive appraisal of Gonse’s two-volume survey ‘L’art Japonais’ published the same year.

Literature: Henri Vever, La Bijouterie Française au XIXe Siècle, Vol. III, p. 500, translated edition p. 992), the top jewel forming part of a group of three illustrated in the Neo-Renaissance taste

Exhibition: The top jewel included in Lucien Falize’s display at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878