Beatrix, 1935

The whole point of this Art Nouveau bangle 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 gallery is sawn through with a saw-blade no thicker than a hair. The last owner was a house in Porto; with a note in the box naming the woman who first wore it. Nothing about it was made to impress, which is exactly why it does.