This Art Nouveau Jewelry item is a pendant crafted in sterling silver weighs 11.7g and measures 4.25 inches long, 28mm wide and 16mm deep. Quintessentially Art Nouveau in design and immaculate craftsmanship, this fascinating three dimensional silver pendant, possibly of German provenance, depicts the immaculately sculptured full silhouette of a very beautiful, semi-nude female figure, masterfully rendered in repoussé work. Epitomizing the Art Nouveau leitmotif of 'femininity and its relation to nature', the reverse is adorned with floral designs, while alluring flower heads embrace the female's flowing long hair. A triumvirate bale of substantial width offers versatility of wearing the pendant with various chains or, in the classical turn of the century style, with velvet ribbons of contrasting color.
By the late 1880's and 1890's, silver was widely used for the new kind of mass-produced, inexpensive popular jewels, pioneered in Germany (primarily Hannau) and followed by England where the Art Nouveau movement had become synonymous with the 'Liberty & Co.' style, due to the fact that the appearance of silver was more in keeping with Arts & Crafts doctrines and ethics. It is interesting to note that the less expensive silver jewelry, most of which was produced in Germany, took the basic and most distinctive features of the Celtic design and the 'avant-garde' Art Nouveau characteristics but with a less 'exotic' or 'shocking' appearance. The range of Art Nouveau silver jewelry is wide, from avant-garde German and modernistic Austrian designs, to English Liberty style and American stylized mass production of French ideas, all of which have their value in jewelry history.
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