Serafina, 1821

A small Art Deco thing, and a serious one. The onyx is cooler in daylight than you expect, never showy, the calibré-cut channel setting unmistakable. The detail is built up bead by bead, a technique half-lost by the time this was made. It reached us out of a house near Prague, unworn for a lifetime and none the worse for it. You can tell it was worn, not kept — the highest thing we can say of a piece.