platinum 950, osmium, white gold 750, baguette-cut diamonds total weight c. 5.50 ct, untreated sapphires total weight c. 45 ct, serial number 50709, produced and hallmarked by atelier Jean & Robert Rubel Paris, French gov. hallmarks, signed, diameter c. 50 mm, workmanship c. 1938/39, 44.5 g, Van Cleef & Arpels certificate of authenticity from September 2018 enclosed, the characteristics of the tested sapphires point to Cambodia as the location where they were found, no signs of thermal treatment

Modernism and the 1937 Paris World’s Fair
While jewellery designers in the 1920s still sought inspiration in exotic floral motifs executed in Art Déco style, the functionality and multiple wearability of a piece of jewellery became increasingly important in the early 1930s. The jewellery design of those years is characterised by a mix of materials and a combination of different forms. It was the decade of creative femininity. Jeanne Toussaint’s designs for Cartier, Suzanne Belperron’s for Boivin and Renée Puissant’s for van Cleef, for example, exerted a decisive influence on the typical jewels of their respective companies.
The 1937 Paris World’s Fair was entitled “Art and Technology in Modern Life”. The seeming contradiction between the useful and the beautiful was to be eliminated in order to show that art and technology complement each other. Decorative elements such as curves or abstracted arabesques loosen up the strict geometric forms that had hitherto been used.
A version with rubies of the present brooch was displayed at the World’s Fair.