The Harvest Drops

Look closely and the drop earrings give themselves away as Art Nouveau: opals, worn thin at the back where a hand has turned it for a century, held by chased naturalistic goldwork. It is the kind of work that took a bench jeweller a full week, and it has survived a century without a loosened stone. A dealer we trust brought it down from a Lisbon family, kept in a bank drawer far longer than it was ever worn. Where it came from, such a piece is simply 'grandmother's' — to the rest of us, it is extraordinary.