Attributed to Maingourd: A Belle Epoque diamond and pearl pendant/brooch, circa 1915

The stylised openwork shell with a central 5.8mm pearl, above a lunette-shaped diamond, issuing graduated lines of old single and old brilliant-cut diamonds on knife-edge bars, within a scalloped old and rose-cut diamond frame, suspending a waterfall of graduated rose-cut diamond lines, terminating in pear, marquise and briolette-cut diamond drops, to a detachable pearl-set trace-link chain, pearls untested, in fitted case by Maingourd, Paris Le Mans (Length: 7.5cm) Maingourd was founded in 1873 by Ulysse Leon Maingourd in Paris. His two sons, Francis and Charles, joined the company after studying law and design at the Ecole de Bijouterie et Joaillerie in Paris, and they relocated their shop to the Rue de la Paix. They opened further boutiques in Alencon, Dinard and Le Mans, focusing on the Easter and summer seasons. Charles worked as a designer for Garrard in London and after 1930 for Mellerio in Madrid. After Francis' death in the first World War, the Paris shop was closed and Charles kept only the Le Mans boutique until his own passing in 1954. Forty years later his descendants opened a new jewellery business of the same name in Oviedo, Spain.