Kensington House Antiques and Sterling Silver Kensington House
Antiques
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Gold : Art Nouveau : Pre 1900 item #1334046
Kensington House Antiques
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A lovely 18K yellow gold bracelet designed as floral plaques separated by bezel set blue sapphire cabochons. Each elegantly pierced gold plaque depicts a rose encircled by scrolls and flanked by additional flowers. The backs of the plaques are engraved in a matching motif. The high-domed cabochons have fine deep blue coloring and show no indications of heat treatment. The clasp is stamped with French 18K marks.
  • Origin: France, ca. 1890
  • Condition: excellent, sharp detail
  • Dimensions: 9/16” wide; 7-3/8” long
  • Weight: 22.8 grams
  • Approximate Total Sapphire Weight: 3.12 carats
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Gold : Victorian : Pre 1910 item #1482019
Kensington House Antiques
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A lovely 18K gold bracelet in the Louis XVI style, the links fashioned as floral and foliate wreaths alternately centered with old European cut diamonds and round cut rubies. The pierced design lends a light appearance despite the bracelet’s substantial weight. The clasp is stamped with French 18K gold marks.
  • Origin: France, ca. 1900
  • Condition: excellent, all original
  • Dimensions: 7/16” wide; 7-1/2” long
  • Weight: 29.1 grams
  • Approximate Total Gemstone Weight: diamond, .24 carat; ruby, .44 carat
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Silver : Pre 1910 item #1328798
Kensington House Antiques
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A handsome pair of French silver Art Nouveau cufflinks, the faces decorated with a young woman against a spider web background. In Art Nouveau jewelry, the spider web motif was meant to symbolize entrapment and danger—in this case as a counterpoint to the maiden who suggests innocence. The outer edges of the faces follow the geometric shape of the spider web at the top, but are more rounded at the bottom of the design where the woman’s hair and clothing flows. The faces are connected with chains to torpedo backs engraved in a whiplash curve motif. The cufflinks are illegibly stamped with the maker’s mark.

Origin: France, ca. 1895. Condition: excellent, all original, very good detail. Dimensions: front faces, 9/16” diameter. Weight: 3.9 gr.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Silver : Art Nouveau : Pre 1910 item #1393398
Kensington House Antiques
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A delightfully feisty-looking cat is featured in the French Art Nouveau brooch. We’re particularly fond of his enormously long whiskers that stretch the full width of the pin. The pin is stamped with French silver marks and with an illegible maker’s mark.

NOTE: The pin could be worn as a pendant with the addition of a bail to the back.
  • Origin: France, ca. 1905.
  • Condition: excellent; all original.
  • Dimensions: 1” diameter.
  • Weight: 5.4 grams.
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Silver : Art Nouveau : Pre 1910 item #1385573
Kensington House Antiques
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An elegant Art Nouveau silver brooch depicting a maiden smelling a rose. She is surrounded in a bower of climbing roses and enclosed in a frame of whiplash curves typical of French Art Nouveau. The clasp is marked for silver and bears the maker's mark of Fernand Boursot, who opened shop in Paris in 1894. THe brooch could be converted to a pendant with the addition of a bail at the top or a pair of bails and a split chain at the upper corners.
  • France, ca 1895.
  • Excellent condition; sharp detail.
  • 1" x 15/16".
  • 5.1 grams.
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1900 item #1350194
Kensington House Antiques
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A pair of handsome 18K yellow gold cufflinks designed in an Art Nouveau interpretation of Gothic Revival. The heavy pierced front faces are reminiscent of the ornate carved stone bosses at the interesections of the ceiling ribs in a Gothic vaulted ceiling, while the back faces are pure Art Nouveau with whiplash curves. The pairing makes for a very attractive combination. The backs of the faces and the chains are stamped with French 18K marks.

Origin: France, ca. 1890. Condition: excellent, all original. Dimensions: front faces, 5/8" x 5/8"; back faces, 1/4" x 7/8". Weight: 9.3 gr.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1900 item #1368821
Kensington House Antiques
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An elegant pair of 18K yellow gold cufflinks in a style blending elements of Aesthetic and Art Nouveau design. The round faces are decorated with a finely-pierced design of grapevines complete with clusters of fruit. The faces are joined by chains to torpedo backs. These would be a wonderful gift for the true wine lover and connoisseur. Fully marked with French hallmarks for 18K.

Origin: France, ca. 1890. Condition: excellent; sharp detail. Size: 9/16” diameter. Weight: 5.8 grams.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1900 item #1268184
Kensington House Antiques
$2,695.00
An extraordinary pair of French Art Nouveau 18K yellow gold enameled cufflinks, the faces featuring flowers bearing a secret message. In Victorian symbology, the daisy represented "innocence" or "purity", whereas the red poppy meant "pleasure". Taken together, the choice of flowers in these cufflinks was certainly intended to convey an erotic sentiment. The faces are beautifully hand-pierced and highlighted with translucent enamels in delicate shades of green, rosy red and whitish-yellow. The exposed areas of gold are worked in the semi-matte Russian finish popular in better quality Art Nouveau jewels. Each face is marked with the "tete d'aigle" for 18K.

Origin: France, ca. 1890. Condition: excellent; a couple of extremely minor enamel flakes under magnification. Dimensions: 9/16" diameter. Weight: 10.8 grams.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1900 item #1066057
Kensington House Antiques
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A fine pair of French Art Nouveau 18K yellow gold cufflinks in the form of sinuously curved griffins. Mythological creatures such as griffins and dragons were a particularly popular subject matter for French jewelers of the era. The creatures are finely worked with excellent detail to the scales and other features. The chain connectors are fully hallmarked with French 18K hallmarks and with an unidentified maker's mark.

Origin: France, ca. 1890. Condition: excellent. Size: 9/16" x 7/16". Weight: 9.5 grams.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Gold : Art Nouveau : Pre 1900 item #1466670
Kensington House Antiques
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A very fine French Art Nouveau 18K yellow gold festoon necklace comprising three gold plaques exquisitely engraved in a pattern of roses and their foliage. The plaques are curved to create a "festoon" look, and are suspended from a gold chain set with natural seed pearls. The backs of the plaques are lightly engraved with a reverse image of the roses—a hidden luxury that speaks to the quality of the piece. Each plaque also includes stems with pronounced thorns, perhaps as a reminder of the selflessness of love. Victorian floriography adoped red roses to represent love from the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis. As she raced to the side of her fallen mortal lover, Aphrodite pricked her toe on the thorn of a white rose and her blood forever stained the flower red. The necklace is stamped with French 18K gold marks, and with an illegible maker's mark.
  • Origin: France, ca 1895
  • Condition: excellent
  • Dimensions: necklace length, 16-3/4"; central plaque, 1-7/8" wide, 1-1/4" high
  • Weight: 21.9 grams
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1910 item #1385576
Kensington House Antiques
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French Art Nouveau 18K gold and sapphire cufflinks, the triangular faces pierced in a decoration of stylized flowers and set at the centers with cabochon blue sapphires. The gold surface has a very handsome matte finish that allows the sapphires to shine. The connectors are stamped with French 18K marks and an unidentified maker's mark (SAS).
  • France, ca 1895.
  • Excellent condition; sharp detail.
  • 5/8" x 5/8".
  • 7.3 grams.
  • Approximate Total Sapphire Weight: 1.04 carat.
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Gold : Art Nouveau : Pre 1910 item #1393875
Kensington House Antiques
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A striking Art Nouveau 18K gold and pearl necklace in the form of a pendant of chestnut leaves suspended from a cluster of chestnuts. The gold surfaces are entirely hand engraved with very fine detail. The pendant is set with a natural button pearl and suspends a second pearl at the bottom. The chain is enhanced with a series of tiny pearls, as well. Chestnut trees have traditionally represented fertility, but in Victorian flower language, came more to represent “luxury and abundance.” This style of necklace, called a “draperie” was a popular form among Parisian jewelers around 1900-10. The necklace is stamped with French 18K gold marks, as well as an illegible maker’s mark.
  • Origin: France, ca. 1905.
  • Condition: excellent; sharp detail; all original.
  • Dimensions: pendant, 1-1/8” wide x 3” long from the cluster of fruit to the suspended pearl; chain length, 15-7/8”.
  • Weight: 10.9 grams.
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Gold : Art Nouveau : Pre 1900 item #1476640
Kensington House Antiques
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An elegant Art Nouveau bracelet worked in 18K gold, each link is the form of a pansy enclosed in a scrolling border. The Victorian floriography (the “language of flowers”), the pansy represented the sentiment “think of me.” Jewels with pansies were often given as a romantic gesture or by the parents of a young woman upon her marriage. The bracelet is stamped with 18K fineness marks and an unidentified goldsmith’s mark.
  • Origin: France, ca. 1900
  • Condition: excellent
  • Dimensions: 7-7/8” long; 1/2" wide
  • Weight: 16.4 grams
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1900 item #1476637
Kensington House Antiques
$1,250.00
A fine pair of French Art Nouveau 18K gold cufflinks, the faces depicting a mythological dragon with a scaly body and feathered wings. The cufflinks are very finely detailed. The back are stamped with French 18K gold marks.
  • Origin: France, ca. 1890
  • Condition: excellent
  • Dimensions: faces, 9/19” diameter
  • Weight: 9.8 grams
All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1920 item #439014
Kensington House Antiques
$2250.00
Very fine pair of late Art Noveau 18K gold double-sided cufflinks. The faces show a beautifully designed young woman's face stylized wisps of hair cascading around a porthole-like frame. The design is really superb. The connectors open so the cufflinks are easy to put on. The backs are marked with French 18K import marks. The rather severely stylized design suggests that they are of Belgian or German (possibly Austrian) origin.

Origin: Continental Europe, ca. 1910. Condition: excellent, sharp detail, all original. Size: 9/16" diameter. Weight: 9.0 grams.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Cufflinks and Accessories : Gold : Pre 1900 item #1006471
Kensington House Antiques
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A fine pair of French Art Nouveau 18K yellow gold cufflinks, the double faces in the form of snarling mythological griffins. The details are beautifully worked. Mythological beasts such as griffins, dragons and sphinxes were especially popular in Art Nouveau jewels by French makers. Each cufflink has one face that is smaller than the other so that it can more easily be slipped through the cuff hole. Each cufflink is hallmarked with the French “tete d’aigle”stamp for 18K.

Origin: France, ca. 1890. Condition: excellent. Size: full faces, 17/32” diameter; smaller faces, 17/32” x 7/16”. Weight: 8.0 grams.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Gold : Art Nouveau : Pre 1900 item #1296714
Kensington House Antiques
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An elegant pair of French Art Nouveau 18K yellow gold earrings designed in a openwork pattern of irises. The flowers and foliage are highlighted with delicate engraving. The gold surfaces are enhanced with the soft matte texture typical of French jewels of the period. The wires appear to be replacements and are stamped with French 18K marks.

Origin: France, ca. 1890. Condition: excellent. Dimensions: 3/4" 3/4". Weight: 4.7 grams.

All Items : Estate Jewelry : Gold : Art Nouveau : Pre 1920 item #562286
Kensington House Antiques
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A wonderfully naughty Art Nouveau 18K yellow gold ring depicting a couple engaged in mutual oral stimulation. Victorian and Edwardian erotic jewelry is extremely rare, having been made only for the daring few who were willing to wear such things in public. Like other pieces of erotica, the designer was charged with making the object look as innocent as possible, only revealing its true nature upon very careful and prolonged inspection. Upon first examination, this ring appears to be a typical sinuous floral Art Nouveau design. Looking closely however, the design reveals a man and woman amorously entwined. Even the back of the shank is decorated with a pair of somewhat cleverly concealed penises. The ring is marked with French hallmarks for 18K gold.

Origin: France, ca. 1910. Condition: excellent, very little wear. Size: 1/2" wide. Finger Size: 8-3/4. Weight: 7.5 grams.