Description
Truly a unique and remarkable work of art in a piece of jewellery. Firmly attributed to Charles Fleetwood Varley(1874-1959), a British artist, who was highly celebrated for his landscape watercolours, before successfully turning his hand to the creation of enamels. He collaborated with and became friends with the Arts and Crafts’ great, Charles Robert Ashbee, with Varley creating enamels for the Guild of Handicraft from the 1890s until the dissolution of the Guild in 1907. Varley then produced enamel pieces for Liberty & Co of London. His work is particularly sought-after.
This impressive pendant is an incredibly beautiful thing. I believe it to be pre-Liberty, because of the unusual design of the pendant and think it may well be a Guild of Handicraft piece c1900. The structure, with its five long, rectangular silver drops suspended on a bar below the enamel on copper roundel, is very reminiscent of other pieces from the 1900 era, including Jugendstil pieces from Pforzheim. The enamel painting is superlative, with a twilight landscape scene of mountains, water and shore. All typical Varley subjects. The moon is illuminated brightly in the sky, with its light being reflected in the water below. Vivid blues, greens, oranges are also typical of Varley’s colour palette. This s sophisticated enamel work, another reason why I believe it is more likely to be a Guild piece. The later Liberty enamels can be rather more simplistic and lack the detail that we have here. This is surely an important piece of British Arts and Crafts’ design.
The enamel is in pristine condition with the colours vivid and lively. It is a full-size landscape subject in a 2.7cm diameter roundel. Scrutinising under a loupe, it looks like there are traces of gold lettering to the bottom left but it is too rubbed to read. It’s a beauty of a pendant and I am happy to include the sterling stamped chain in the images with it too. The pendant measures approx 8.3cm in height and the chain measures approx 40.5cm (16 inches).
I shall send in a new gift box (not the box in the images) by special delivery within the UK or else by express courier internationally. Thank you.
Ref: dfw
