"Cascade" Pendant"

In 1895, Georges Fouquet took over from his father Alphonse Fouquet the jewellery company, which he had founded in 1860. Inspired by collaborators full of new ideas such as Alphonse Mucha and Charles Desrosiers, Fouquet completely transformed the art of jewellery.

He commissioned Mucha to make several exceptional items of jewellery, such as a bracelet for Sarah Bernhardt and entrusted him with decorating his new shop, which opened in 1900 at 6, Rue Royale, Paris. He commissioned Desrosiers, a former pupil of Grasset, to design jewellery for everyday use.

Fouquet’s jewellery was known for its decorative character and clarity of execution. He frequently surrounded the outline of his pieces with a line of small diamonds to set off the main pattern. He often used enamels, appreciated for their transparency and delicate colour, and frequently combined them with opals chosen for their changing reflections, or baroque pearls, which displayed irregularities in their surface and material. He drew most of his inspiration from flora and fauna, which provided an inexhaustible repertoire of shapes and colours.

Fouquet made the present pendant after the design by Mucha and the decoration by Desrosiers.