Beatrix, 1788

The whole point of this Art Nouveau bow brooch is restraint — opals, worn thin at the back where a hand has turned it for a century, and nothing more than chased naturalistic goldwork. It is the kind of work that took a bench jeweller a full week, and it has survived a century without a loosened stone. The last owner was a house in the Tyrol; with a note in the box naming the woman who first wore it. Where it came from, such a piece is simply 'grandmother's' — to the rest of us, it is extraordinary.