86 - Falko Marx

Falko Marx A German 18k yellow gold kinetic capsule bracelet with a religious miniature. Unique piece. Bangle with a moulded oval capsule and rock crystal cover. Set with a 19th-century porcelain miniature depicting a saint in polychrome, filled with colourless liquid in which platinum needles, gold foil strips, gold granules and brilliant-cut diamonds float. The eyes of the saint gazing heavenwards are accentuated with faceted paste stones. Hand-forged safety chain. Engraved: Fineness 750, “Falko Marx Köln”, dated “Juni 92”, inscribed “Märtyrerin” (female martyr). Inner band with applied owner’s initials “GS”. Capsule 4.7 × 3.4 cm. Weight 81.05 g. Falko Marx, Cologne, 1992. Kinetic water rings or water bangles featured in Falko Marx’s oeuvre since the late 1960s. These pieces incorporate a kind of reliquary capsule filled with liquid, into which the goldsmith also integrated objets trouvés, such as this porcelain plaque depicting a female saint. “Liquid containing bubbles, sometimes blackened, granules, precious metal needles and gemstones conceal or reveal different parts of the image as the piece moves, kaleidoscopically altering the overall appearance of the jewel in often surprising ways” (Gerhard Dietrich, foreword to the aforementioned catalogue, p. 8). Literature Cf. Ornament as Art Avantgarde, Jewellery from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Stuttgart, 2007, no. 456. A comparable bangle with a capsule containing a saint’s portrait was sold at Lempertz Auction 794, lot 694. Cf. also Falko Marx – Ein Künstler zwischen den Zeiten und zwischen den Stilen, exh. cat., Cologne, 2009, p. 82.