Antique Bressan Enamel, French, from Bourg-en-Bresse in the Bourgogne area, east France, approx midway between Lyons and Geneva. The above necklace was created in the late 1800s; the town made a speciality of enamel work for centuries, but the techniques involved in creating items such as the above did not come into play until the 1850s. The art achieved a high popularity in the last decades of the 1800s, in England and France especially, but the work is extremely labour-intensive, and what with the loss of man-power due to WWI, and rises in wages, its popularity declined and now there is only one house in the town still producing, and the modern work simply does not have the wonderful business and the old-fashioned abundance of the Antique Bressan Enamel.
There are twelve medallions in the above necklace. The way the businesss worked in the 1800s, the artisans of Bourg-en-Bresse produced the enamelled and finished medallions and sent them to Paris jewellery ateliers where they were assembled into saleable items.
The creation usually involved seven or eight enamel applications. In the above, the colours of Pearl, Emerald, Ruby and Turquoise were enamelled onto a base of machined, glinting enamel (called guilloche), and then meticulously, profusely tricked out with hand-applied gold leaf.
The thirteen small “gemstones” in multi-clawed Silver settings are all glass.
Antique Bressan Enamel, French
$1,350.00
Antique Bressan Enamel from the late 1800s, created in Bourg-en-Bresse eastern France. This necklace is in very good condition and quite rare. The craft involved in the production of this type of enamel work is intensive, requiring up to seven applications of enamel, and minutely detailed applications of gold leaf.
The French 800 standard Silver chain is original. Necklace length 47cm, with a 40mm centre pendant drop. Seven medallion centrepiece 25x25mm.
See below further information on this rare French Antique.