The Cardinal Signet

Look closely and the signet gives itself away as Retro: large citrines, the honey gold more honest than anything cut today, held by bold sculpted volume. It is the kind of work that took a bench jeweller a full week, and it has survived a century without a loosened stone. A dealer we trust brought it down from an Amsterdam family, kept in a bank drawer far longer than it was ever worn. Where it came from, such a piece is simply 'grandmother's' — to the rest of us, it is extraordinary.