Swan Lake Symphony Brooch/Pendant

The bill of a swan is orange. It is the one colour the bird carries, and Eve has built the entire piece from it.

A hundred oval orange sapphires, close to twenty-five carats, carry the form. Orange is an uncommon colour in sapphire and a demanding one to gather in quantity: bringing a hundred stones to a single hue means looking at a great many more than a hundred, and that sorting is the greater part of the work long before the piece reaches the bench.

Round brilliant diamonds, a little over one and a half carats, run among them.

The swan measures 58 by 62 millimetres and stands 18 millimetres proud of the surface — a modelled form rather than a drawn one. That depth allows a hundred stones to sit at their own angles and take the light each in its own moment, so the colour moves across the bird as the wearer does.

This is Cygnus olor — the mute swan, the one that keeps the rivers of England — and the orange bill is its signature.

In 18-karat white gold, and made to be worn two ways, at the neck and at the shoulder.

The piece belongs to Tchaikovsky’s Treasure Trove and to Aves.

Please enquire for certification and viewing.