The Sable Festoon

Look closely and the festoon necklace gives itself away as Victorian: old-mine diamonds, holding a steady colourless white fire even in shade, held by hand-chased repoussé. The gallery is sawn through with a saw-blade no thicker than a hair. A dealer we trust brought it down from a Lisbon family, kept in a bank drawer far longer than it was ever worn. Nothing about it was made to impress, which is exactly why it does.