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1938 ElsaSchiaparelli CouturePagan DeposeFrance FeatherCrystalGold Bird Brooch

Name: 1938 ElsaSchiaparelli CouturePagan DeposeFrance FeatherCrystalGold Bird Brooch
Brand: Elsa Schiaparelli
Price: 5770 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Unusually decorated with small partridge feathers like the yellow-gold gilt necklace commissioned by Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) that is featured on the front-and-back covers and centerfold of the French costume-jewelry hardcover book, Lina Baretti Parures, by Patrick Mauries, this unique pave-crystal yellow-gold gilt metal partridge-on-a-branch brooch is further distinguished as an unsigned Parisian-couture piece for Italian-born Schiaparelli with its combination of embossed text "Made In France" and "Modele Depose", along with the trombone clasp often used in the early 20th Century for custom-made French small brooches. The book centerfold on pages 90-91 shows a closeup of the feathered necklace created by French-born Corsican Baretti, whose intricate decoration often mixed ready-made textural or shiny materials like velvet, cork, wire, rhodoid or raffia with custom-made metal, plastic or glass by specialized Parisian workshops such as Gripoix. The Baretti-book caption about the attributed necklace notes: "Collier realise pour Elsa Schiaparelli. Liege, soie, cannetille, perles de verre et plumes de perdix. Chaine en metal." While none of the captions date this necklace--which could have been from the same commission as our brooch--Baretti created one-of-a-kind jewelry for Schiaparelli from the 1930s until the early 1950s when the fashion designer retired. Our brooch was most likely made for a fashion-show debut of one of Schiaparelli's themed clothing collections in the late 1930s for which she commissioned many costume-jewelry paruriers including Baretti. See our photo of a Schiaparelli 1930s-dated monkey-on-a-branch small brooch similar to ours in the museum collection of TheMet, which seems to be by another Schiaparelli-parurier Jean Clement or Jean Schlumberger. Like this brooch, our partridge-on-a-branch subject best suits Schiaparelli's "Pagan" collection that was presented in Fall 1938, which included one-off jewelry, buttons and accessories mostly depicting insects, flowers, leaves, wild animals, sea creatures, birds and/or branches, while some of this collection's clothing featured a tree-bark-pattern print. More so linking the Baretti-style materials and construction on our brooch to Schiaparelli in Fall 1938, TheMet collection has only one feathered silk-clothing ensemble by the couturier, which happens to date to that season and which features feathers of a similar color and size. Likewise dated near 1940 in the aforementioned book on page 124, a Schiaparelli-commissioned bird hat-pin with a similarly textured yellow-gold gilt metal head depicting a duck is decorated by Baretti like our brooch with intricate metalwork, velvet, and pave crystals also including a colored one for the eye. On our 2.5-inch-long bird brooch, there are 22 pave crystals (none missing), while intricate repousse or stamping defines its branch, feet and head. The multiple tiny partridge feathers that shape the rest of the body are meticulously mounted on a dome of wool that seems affixed to ecru velvet, which is further pinched in place between the pair of flat metal head-feathers. Please see our other listings for equally rare couture costume jewelry distinctly by Baretti that--beyond for Schiaparelli--includes a black-camellia brooch-and-earrings set commissioned by Gabriel "Coco" Chanel, for whom she was designing pieces in the shape of camellias since at least 1930. Until the 1970s, Lina Baretti (1899-1994) continued to make her signature "bijoux fantaisie" anonymously for leading French couturiers and luxury brands, which also included Jean Lanvin, Cristobal Balenciaga and Henry A La Pensee among others. Couture progressive costume jewelry commissioned by Schiaparelli while she was the most internationally celebrated fashion designer from 1935-1939 continues to sell for record prices. Notably, a metallic-insect-adorned rhodoid choker from her Pagan collection sold at Sotheby's for 85,000 euro.

Creator:

Elsa Schiaparelli

Metal:

Gold,Yellow Gold,Gilt Metal

Stone:

Crystal

Stone Cut:

Mixed Cut

Weight:

4 g

Dimensions:

Width: 1 in (25.4 mm)Length: 2.5 in (63.5 mm)

Place of Origin:

France

Period:

1930-1939

Date of Manufacture:

1938

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Chicago, IL

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU3244222404982

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Shop All Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli

From her signature color Shocking Pink to her collaborations with Surrealist artists, the boldly original Elsa Schiaparelli transformed fashion with her haute couture house from the late 1920s to the early ’50s. Experimenting with elements like trompe l’oeil images and colorful visible zippers, the Italian designer instilled a provocative avant-garde artistry in her clothing and accessories, including those created with Salvador Dalí, such as the lobster dress and a hat shaped like a shoe.

Born in Rome, Schiaparelli was a rebellious child who grew up among the city’s intellectual elite. She had a voracious appetite for reading and became interested in ancient cultures, astronomy and world religions. Schiaparelli studied philosophy at the University of Rome, and after publishing a collection of poems on love and sensuality that so mortified her conservative parents that they tried, unsuccessfully, to confine her to a Swiss convent, she left for London.

A quick marriage to Count Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor brought her to New York, but it would be in Paris following her divorce that Schiaparelli embraced her artistic passions. She moved to the French capital city in 1922 with her young daughter and happened to meet master couturier Paul Poiret, who loaned the stylish Schiaparelli his clothes, sparking her own fashion interests.

Schiaparelli opened her modest atelier in Paris and debuted her first collection of knitwear in 1927, and later that year, she designed a black-and-white pullover hand-knit wool sweater featuring a trompe l’oeil bowknot that captured the attention of the fashion world. Vogue called it “an artistic masterpiece.” The success led to her moving her house to 21 Place Vendôme in 1935 where thousands of garments were produced each year.

Schiaparelli’s knitwear collections were later accompanied by revolutionary swimsuits and other clothing and accessories. Her inventive designs would include culottes — a radical statement in the 1930s when women still could cause a scandal by wearing pants — as well as printed fabric, such as the 1938 Tears dress with a print designed by Dalí making it appear as if the evening gown had been savagely ripped.

Schiaparelli was among the first designers to use materials like rayon and Lurex as well as explore wrap dresses and transparent raincoats. She also introduced unisex fragrances and brought her artistic partnerships into jewelry, such as bronze brooches made with Alberto Giacometti and fur-lined bracelets with Méret Oppenheim. As she wrote in her 1954 autobiography Shocking Life, women should “dare to be different.”

Despite her acclaim, her shop closed in 1954 after a tumultuous time during World War II. By then, fashion had moved on with Christian Dior's New Look, and the closure of Schiaparelli's business coincided with a comeback mounted by Coco Chanel, her archrival in the early days.

In 2006, Italian businessman Diego Della Valle acquired the brand and its archives, and the Maison Schiaparelli was reopened in 2012, back at 21 Place Vendôme where Schiaparelli's fearless and enduring work began.

Find vintage Elsa Schiaparelli hats, evening dresses and other clothing and accessories on 1stDibs.