A Late Victorian Opal And Diamond Bangle

A Late Victorian Opal And Diamond Bangle

Description

A late Victorian opal and diamond bangle, consisting of nine oval cabochon-cut opals, vertically-set with two small old-cut diamonds in-between and diamond-set trefoil finials, all claw-set in 15ct yellow gold mount with pierced gallery, with a hidden clasp and safety chain, unmarked, circa 1890, accompanied by original case, the head of bangle measuring 6.5 x 0.7cm, the inner diameter is approximately 5.8cm, gross weight 7.3 grams.

Opals have long been linked to supernatural phenomenon, and during the Black Death it was said that just before the sick died, an opal nearby flashes and then turned dull. They were particularly popular in Victorian Europe, following the arrival of the first opals from Australia in the late 1880s. Major fashion houses incorporated them into their jewellery designs and much of the late Victorian jewellery we see today contains opal. Opals are seen less frequently in Art Deco jewellery, and it has been mooted that this is a consequence of the cursed opal in Walter Scott’s 1929 novel “Anne of Geierstein”. This opal bangle is now part of the collection of Bentley and Skinner, the London jewellers by appointment to both Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.