c. 1870s Swiss Gold Pierce-worked Demi-Parure

A gorgeous c. 1870 pierced 18k rose gold, diamond, and pearl demi-parure by Jean-Moïse Badollet & Cie of Geneva, Switzerland, wonderfully preserved in its original fitted leather box with the client’s initials (L.T.) tooled in gilt lettering. Wonderfully versatile, the set consists of a handsome book chain with intricately pierced scrollwork links, which can be worn alone as a statement chain, or paired with the pendant of matched design. Two original bolt rings are included: a smaller 10.9 mm for a seamless look when wearing the chain alone, and a larger 15.6 mm for wearing with the pendant, which has a locket compartment to reverse and transforms into a brooch when the removable bail is set aside. The book chain’s pierced links are not identical, featuring a rotating sequence of three different designs; visible quirks and toolmarks betray time-consuming hand finishing. Jean-Moïse Badollet & Cie was a Geneva-based family firm with operational history since the 17th century. By the 1870s, the company was renowned for its high-end products, receiving awards from the Geneva Observatory and the Société des Arts, in addition to international exhibitions in Vienna (1873) and Chicago (1893). The firm’s name underwent several changes throughout the centuries; the “J.M. Badollet & Cie” of the present parure was in use between 1837- 1890. Due to the firm’s primary focus in watchmaking, it’s possible this parure was made in France and sourced by J.M. Badollet for retail. Geneva being a Francophone city of Switzerland, the region’s jewelry has long shared various overlaps with that of France. The intricate, densely-spaced pierced design of the present parure can be attributed to French design of the 1870s, well-documented by Henri Vever in “French Jewelry of the 19th Century” (see p. 817, 897, 936). This pierce-work process, which involves chiseling and punching holes in sheet gold to achieve the desired lattice openwork, is closely associated with and perhaps inspired by the opus interrasile (lit. “work shaved or scraped in-between”) technique of 5th-7th c. Byzantine gold. The 1860-70s were the age of archeology, historicism, and revival in European culture; rapid urbanization, road projects, and railway building also unveiled artifacts from pre-Medieval Europe, spurring an interest in early jewelry.
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