Céleste, 1851

The whole point of this Victorian spray brooch is restraint — banded agate, holding a steady quiet colour even in shade, and nothing more than hand-chased repoussé. The detail is built up bead by bead, a technique half-lost by the time this was made. The last owner was a Parisian apartment; with a note in the box naming the woman who first wore it. You can tell it was worn, not kept — the highest thing we can say of a piece.