Hair ornament by Louis Gautrait, 1900-1910

The most important pieces are French, and are based on some of the favourite decorative motifs of the period around 1900. Amongst the identified pieces is a magnificent hair ornament by Louis Gautrait. Gautrait worked as principal engraver to Gariod, a leading firm of Parisian goldsmiths; he is also known to have worked for Maison Vever, and although he never registered an independent mark with the Paris Assay Office, he obviously enjoyed sufficient status to be allowed to stamp his signature on a number of the pieces he made. He seems to have specialised in ornamental pendants, which often took the form of a womans head with flowing hair. The pictured piece, one of his most elaborate, exhibits his interest in floral ornament. It is fashioned in gold, as an openwork design of three heads of cow parsley, set with rose diamonds and beryls and borded with translucent plique-a-jour enamel.