Busacca Gallery

Antique Vintage Art Nouveau Czech Lapis Glass Cabochons Pin Brooch. Designer - Czechoslovakia / Color - Brass? & Blue / Size - .5" tall, 1.5" long / Welcome! For your consideration is a beautiful antique pin. This is an Art Deco style pin done in brass? with 2 square lapis lazuli glass cabochons prong set. It has a very early safety clasp an hinge. It is marked Made In Czechoslov. on the back. This pin in excellent vintage condition and the clasp works great. Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts, known in different languages by different names: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernisme in Catalan, etc. In English it is also known as the Modern Style (not to be confused with Modernism and Modern architecture). The style was most popular between 1890 and 1910. It was a reaction to the academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration and was inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants and flowers, and whiplash forms. Other defining characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry and by curving lines, and the use of modern materials, such as iron pillars and railings, sculpted and curved in naturalistic designs.

PATTERN-MOLDED GLASS / Glassware that has been blown into a mold whose interior has a raised pattern so that the object shows the pattern with a concavity on the inside, underlying the convexity on the outside. Pattern molds are not used to impart the final form to the object.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau

Art Nouveau jewellery's characteristics include subtle curves and lines. Its design often features natural objects including flowers, animals or birds. The female body is also popular often appearing on cameos. It frequently included long necklaces made of pearls or sterling–silver chains punctuated by glass beads or ending in a silver or gold pendant, itself often designed as an ornament to hold a single, faceted jewel of amethyst, peridot, or citrine.

The Art Nouveau period brought a notable stylistic revolution to the jewellery industry, led largely by the major firms in Paris. For the previous two centuries, the emphasis in fine jewellery had been creating dramatic settings for diamonds. During the reign of Art Nouveau, diamonds usually played a supporting role. Jewellers experimented with a wide variety of other stones, including agate, garnet opal, moonstone, aquamarine and other semi–precious stones, and with a wide variety of new techniques, among others enamelling, and new materials, including horn, moluded glass, and ivory.

Early notable Paris jewellers in the Art Nouveau style included Louis Aucoc, whose family jewellery firm dated to 1821. The most famous designer of the Art Nouveau period, René Lalique, served his apprenticeship in the Aucoc studio from 1874 to 1876. Lalique became a central figure of Art Nouveau jewellery and glass, using nature, from dragonflies to grasses, as his models. Artists from outside of the traditional world of jewellery, such as Paul Follot, best known as a furniture designer, experimented with jewellery designs. Other notable French Art Nouveau jewellery designers included Jules Brateau and Georges Henry. In the United States, the most famous designer was Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose work was shown at the shop of Siegfried Bing and also at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

In Britain, the most prominent figure was the Liberty & Co. designer Archibald Knox, who made a variety of Art Nouveau pieces, including silver belt buckles. C. R. Ashbee designed pendants in the shapes of peacocks. The versatile Glasgow designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh also made jewellery, using traditional Celtic symbols. In Germany, the centre for Jugendstil jewellery was the city of Pforzheim, where most of the German firms, including Theodor Fahrner, were located. They quickly produced works to meet the demand for the new style.