Bracelet
Category
Jewellery
Date
1842 (circa) - 1842
Materials
Gold, opal, enamel and diamond.
Collection
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
NT 288790
Summary
A gold expandable bracelet dating from around 1842. The centrepiece is mounted with a slightly oval-shaped white opal cabochon with polished concave back in a spiralled gold frame alternately decorated with royal blue enamelled ribbons and diamond-set lines, on an expandable gold bracelet similarly diamond set and royal blue enamelled, and further decorated with a central row of small opal cabochon and diamond clusters. The bracelet has a registration mark for 1842. It is presented in its original blue velvet fitted case.
Full description
This bracelet, probably the one described in the will of Georgiana, Lady Crewe (1824-1910), bears a registration mark for 1842. It is possible that it was a present to celebrate Georgiana's 18th birthday. In her portrait by Marie Françoise Catherine (Fanny) Corbaux (1812-1883), 1847 (NT 286789), Lady Crewe is depicted wearing two bracelets on her left arm, including one that appears to be similar to this piece.
Provenance
Bracelet with original fitted case, dating from around 1842. This is probably the ‘opal and diamond bracelet’ bequeathed by Georgiana Jane Henrietta Eliza Lovell, Lady Crewe (1824-1910) to be held as an heirloom to accompany the Calke Abbey estate and ‘worn by the wife of the owner of Calke Abbey’. Thence by descent to Henry Harpur-Crewe (1921-91) and transferred with Calke Abbey and its contents to the National Trust by the Treasury in lieu of Capital Transfer Tax in 1985 with an endowment provided by the National Heritage Memorial Fund.