Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu

An 18ct two colour gold wirework brooch, by Charles de Temple, with central glazed panel enclosing dried rose petals, within a radiating design of two colour gold wirework, edged by trailing textured leaves and tendrils, the reverse centred with an applied shaped oval plaque, engraved: ‘The rose that lives its little hour is prized beyond the sculptured flower, William Cullen Bryant’, with facsimile maker’s signature below, hallmarked for 18ct gold, London 1966 and stamped ‘CdeT’, length 58mm. £1,600-£2,400

The inscription to the reverse of the brooch is from a poem by the American poet, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), a verse from his work ‘A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson’, reading:

Loveliest of lovely things are they
On earth that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.