Art Deco Lacloche Ruby Diamond and Enamel Clip Brooch, ca. 1928

A striking and beautifully designed Art Deco clip brooch, by Lacloche from circa 1928. The Indian-inspired motif centres a blooming plant, set with pear-shaped diamonds leaves on a black enamelled stem, surrounded by brilliant-cut diamonds. Encased in a frame of finely cut buff-topped ruby cabochons, following the Mughal architecture. This piece shows beautifully the work that Lacloche is famous for. With the strong design and excellent craftsmanship, it is truly a collector's or museum piece.

Signed.

About Lacloche Frères

The Lacloche family was one of the most significant jeweller family with most renowned designs that would become characteristic of the Art Deco period in jewellery design. The patriarch of the Lacloche family was Hendricks Lacloche, and his six children (four boys and two girls) would all venture into the world of jewellery. Jules and Léopold Lacloche moved to Paris in 1892 to open Lacloche Frères (the best-known Lacloche company), but in Madrid their brothers Jacques and Fernand were selling Parisian jewels as Lacloche & Cie, while their sister Bertha had married Jacob Jacques Walewyk and was selling wedding trousseaus as Walewyk-Lacloche, and their other sister Emilie had married Joseph Cohen (Coven) in 1902, selling jewels as Coven-Lacloche. Among their most famous Lacloche jewels are the exquisite ‘petit point’ bracelets made from fine platinum grids ‘stitched’ with diamonds in embroidered patterns, as well as imaginative animal-themed gold accessories created in collaboration with Julien Duval and Paul Frey. Probably their most highly regarded pieces, however, are their sumptuous Art Deco jewels in the Chinoiserie, Indian and Egyptian revival styles, intricately set with jadeite, diamonds, and buff-topped calibré-cut coloured stones, such as the current brooch. At their peak around the time of this commission, Lacloche Frères were collaborating with some of the best Parisian manufacturers of the era, including Lalique, Strauss, Allard & Meyer, Alfred Langlois, Verger Frères, Henri Picq and Georges L’Enfant, and catered to an elite clientele of socialites, aristocrats and royals throughout France, Spain, Britain, America and Argentina. The family’s legacy has received renewed attention with a recent exhibition at the Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels in Paris, as well as a lavish new book, Lacloche Joailliers by Laurence Mouillefarine and Veronique Ristelhueber.