Retro Art Deco Diamond Double Clip Convertible Brooch

This very fine example of an Art Deco Diamond Double Clip Convertible Brooch was made in France, circa 1940, and depicts a fluted scrolled fan design. Two detachable halves are symmetrical like a playing card—a detail that creates lyrical movement as the eye traces a figure-eight around the design. The brooch is crafted in platinum and set with white diamonds including old brilliant, single, and baguette-cut, of F-H colors and VS clarity. The baguette-cut diamonds are in channel settings and the round brilliant-cut diamonds are in a mixture of pave, claw, and channel settings These double clip-style brooches, or Duettes, named by the American company, Coro in 1935, typically have rotational symmetry, rotated 180 degrees about the center, as opposed to reflective symmetry as there is not a line on which there is a perfect mirror image.
First created by Cartier in 1927, a double clip brooch was a pin-backed mount for two dress clips, so they could be worn together as one brooch or as two separate jewels. Dress clips were already enormously popular in the 1920s because of their versatility. Women used dress clips to accentuate necklines, like a single clip at the bottom of a V-neck, or a pair at the corners of a square neckline. They were also worn to adorn collars, hats, handbags, shoes, or even hair, affixed with bobby-pins. When the dress clip became a two-in-one jewel, it doubled in popularity.
In this exceedingly sparkling example, the center fluted portion accented with a single baguette on top and bottom entirely drops out when the two halves are worn separately, thus producing two identical single pinstem brooches. It is hard to say which is more spectacular, the technology or the artistry where diaphanous folds are cinched by baguette and round diamonds pulled through a channel. The volumes are described impeccably and the way the diamonds are mixed within the forms demonstrates a sophisticated and refined artistry. Nearly 100 years later, this Art Deco Diamond Double Clip Convertible Brooch is a tour-de-force.

SKU :P1044
Category :PINS
Metal :PLAT

Platinum

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