English Victorian Sapphire and Diamond Bracelet by Hunt & Roskell
This magnificent diamond bangle was made by the Jewellers to the British Crown, Hunt & Roskell, in the last decades of Queen Victoria’s reign. The openwork center is set with an oval-cut royal blue Burmese sapphire weighing just under 2 carats. The sapphire sits within a larger cluster of diamonds weighing approximately 5 carats total. This includes eight old-European-cut bezel-set diamonds and an outer border of twenty-four prong-set old European-cut diamonds, with rose diamond accents. Mounted in silver and rose gold, the shoulders continue the design with a line of alternating graduated old-European cut diamonds. In keeping with the versatility of fine Victorian jewelry, the bracelet is convertible into a brooch. In original fitted leather case stamped Hunt & Roskell, Late Storr & Mortimer, London below the Royal British Crown.
Diamond sections measures 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) across; 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm.) long
Circa 1880
*SOLD*
SKU: B070
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Hunt & Roskell-Jeweller to the Queen
Founded in 1846 on New Bond Street in London, Hunt & Roskell, a successor to Paul Storr of Storr & Mortimer, was a leading Victorian jeweller and silversmith. Renowned for the high quality of its gems and pearls, the firm employed French designers and Dutch diamond cutters, and served as an outlet for the jewels of master goldsmith Carlo Giuliano. Hunt & Roskell enjoyed the patronage of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, but is most closely associated with Queen Victoria and the British Aristocracy. In celebration of the first Great London Exhibition of 1851, the firm created a magnificent floral bouquet set with 6,000 diamonds, and a crown of green enamel, pearl and diamond oak leaves encircling a miniature of the monarch by Winterhalter. In the 1860s, they sold the famous Star of South Africa, a 47.69-carat pear-shaped diamond now in the permanent collection of London’s Natural History Museum. After the death of its namesake Robert Roskell in 1887, the store moved to 25 Old Bond Street and now belongs to the Asprey Group.
Literature: For a diamond tiara by Hunt & Roskell with four detacheable flowerheads and respective brooch fittings, see David Bennett and Daniela Mascetti, Understanding Jewellery, 2000, page 199. and for an archeological parure by Giuliano circa 1870, retailed by Hunt & Roskell, see Geoffrey Munn, Castellani & Giuliano, New York, 1984, fig 76.
