Beatrix, 1797

The whole point of this Art Nouveau signet is restraint — opals, worn thin at the back where a hand has turned it for a century, and nothing more than chased naturalistic goldwork. The detail is built up bead by bead, a technique half-lost by the time this was made. The last owner was a house in Haarlem; with a note in the box naming the woman who first wore it. You can tell it was worn, not kept — the highest thing we can say of a piece.