We have always had a weakness for French bows. Not the sentimental type, but the crafty kind: platinum worked into ribbon, pavé-set with diamonds, pinched at the knot, the loops collapsing as if under an imaginary weight. To make platinum lie down like ribbon, a jeweler drew it into wire thinned to nearly a hair's width, then soldered each length into place under magnification, bend by bend, joint by joint. The whole conceit works only because platinum is strong enough to hold a diamond with almost no metal showing, so the bow can look like something that might slip its knot, while gripping five carats of stone.
The style of these earrings belongs to that peculiarly French conversation between the eighteenth century and the machine age. The prophets of Art Deco preached geometry, ziggurats, stepped pyramids, hard angles sharpened by modern industry. Paris appeared to be attentive and yet, even at its most modern, French jewelry never entirely relinquished the rococo instinct.
From each bow hangs a suspended pendant centred by an old European-cut diamond, enclosed first within a border of calibré-cut emeralds, then by a scalloped halo of brilliant-cut diamonds. The principal stones are old European cuts, faceted by hand in the last generation. They hold the light in the same slow, warm way candle flame does.
The bow itself had enjoyed a remarkably long social life before becoming a jeweler's motif. In the court of Louis XIV, diamond bow brooches, later known as sévignés, after the Marquise de Sévigné, were among the most fashionable ornaments in France. Her letters remain the most reliable gossip we have about who was sleeping with whom at Versailles. A diamond bow fixed over the heart announced that the wearer was taken. One slipped to the throat confessed she was between attachments. A bow lower still, at the décolletage, was less a statement than an invitation. We have spent decades watching the bow refuse to stay buried. From the Georgian era on, design has favored this witty and decorative motif.
Jewels often outlive the customs that produced them. The language these bows once spoke has largely been forgotten. Their elegance, thankfully, remains.
Designer: Unknown
Period: Mid-20th Century
Year: 1930s-50s
Material: Platinum, Old European Cut Diamonds and Emeralds
Condition: Very Good
Made in France
Antique Art Deco Platinum and 5.30 carats of Old European Cut Diamonds and 1.20 Carats of Emeralds Bow Motif drop earrings / 1.5" length and 16.4 grams / Made in France
