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Horacio Villalobos
It was the talk of the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900. A single brooch combining the female figure with that of an insect had the Parisian elite reeling, and they flooded René Lalique’s booth within the Jewellers’ Pavilion. Its open wings, made of fine opaline enamel and decorated with diamonds and moonstones, captivated viewers, while its griffin’s claws and chrysoprase female emerging from the mouth of a dragonfly left them speechless. Never had anyone seen jewelry so enchanting yet polarizing.
Rene Lalique’s Dragonfly Brooch debuted at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900. Horacio Villalobos
His presentation of the dragonfly-woman brooch and other hybrid designs at the Universal Exhibition has often been considered the crowning moment of René Lalique s career and what propelled him to the status of a master jeweler though Lalique wasn t the first decorator or jewelry aficionado to use the brooches as a way to express his creative visions
The Tiara of Saitaphernes: Initially Commissioned As A Gift
The story of the Tiara of Saitaphernes begins in 1894 AD. In that year, the object was commissioned by a pair of brothers from the Ukrainian city of Ochakiv. The brothers Shepsel and Leiba Gokhman (also spelled as Hochmann) approached Israel Rouchomovsky, a goldsmith and jeweler based in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, for the job. Rouchomovsky was a master of his craft and his work was appreciated by Peter Carl Fabergé. The Russian jeweler, famed for his Fabergé eggs, considered Rouchomovsky to be the “greatest goldsmith of all time.”
Rouchomovsky was born in 1860 into an Orthodox Jewish family. His parents, who wanted him to become a rabbi, sent him to a religious school. Even as a child, however, Rouchomovsky was much more inclined towards the arts. Possessing both passion and skill, he taught himself and mastered engraving and jewelry making. Thanks to his creative mind, Rouchomovsky was always making som