Wisteria Drops

These drop earrings are Belle Époque through and through — sapphires, carrying a soft royal blue that seems to come from inside, set in fine millegrain. It is the kind of work that took a bench jeweller a full week, and it has survived a century without a loosened stone. We bought it from an old Salzburg family, with the original receipt still tucked inside the lid. Where it came from, such a piece is simply 'grandmother's' — to the rest of us, it is extraordinary.