Design for a Brooch with Glass Stones

Design for a brooch by French jeweler Alexis Falize, part of an album of drawings by various artists for individual pieces of jewelry, containing a variety of designs in the Art Nouveau style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as well as some pieces from the Second Empire. The design consists of a purplish-blue oval glass stone flanked by four smaller round, gray glass stones, placed inside a golden quatrefoil frame, surrounded by scrolling motifs of yellow gold and green enamel. The scrolling frame is flanked abovve by a purplish-blue round stone, and ends, on the bottom, with a scrolling, stylized fleur-de-lis motif with a round, gray stone in the center. The design reveals are of the style of the Second Empire in France, which were inspired on Greek and Roman antiquity and Mediterranean cultures, and featured compositions with semi-precious stones, such as turquoise and coral, together with enamel and gold. It is likely that glass stones were used as an alternative to pearls, diamonds, or other (semi-)precious stones.