Sterling Silver Art Nouveau Brooch with Plique-à-Jour Enamel

Plique-à-jour enamel is the technique of suspending colored glass in a metal framework without a backing, so light passes through it like a tiny stained-glass window. This brooch has four such cells in graduated greens — not identical, because the firing of each cell is a separate event that the craftsperson controls but cannot entirely predict. The lily-pad motif dates it to the 1905–1910 period, when the natural world was the dominant decorative vocabulary. It came from a waterfront home in Gig Harbor along with a worn velvet box that may or may not have been its original case; the size seems right.