The Florentine Bangle

Look closely and the line bracelet gives itself away as Victorian: almandine garnets, holding a steady wine red even in shade, held by hand-chased repoussé. 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 a Budapest 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.