SPECIAL MARKDOWN!

No one can argue with the best of the best. In fact, The Three Graces lives to find the crème de la crème. In this case, the superlative comes in the form of an articulated Art Deco paste and glass brooch. Typifying the zeitgeist of the times, the designer merged color, geometry, size and rhythm to spell a WOW of a brooch.

The overall configuration is that of a spiraling skyscraper of silver with a crown of clear pastes capping the top. The vertical structure is embellished with a horizontal series of articulated red and green cylinders of glass with finial orbs of black glass. Each is placed on a pin so they rotate. The green glass is swirled to emulate jadeite with the red ones simulating coral.

The black orbs are made to resemble onyx and each colored glass cylinder has an end cap of black "onyx" glass. At the lower end an inverted spire of clear pastes forms a tower-like construction with an articulated dangle of a large black glass sphere surmounted by a smaller one.

From a private collection.