30 - A LATE 19TH CENTURY DIAMOND BANDEAU Designed as a graduated row of old-cut diamond collets, each above a bar set at intervals with a smaller rose-cut diamond collet, forming an undulating line, to a lower border of old-cut diamond collets, mounted in silver, on a wire frame, diamonds approximately 3.50cts total, frame length 30cm

A LATE 19TH CENTURY DIAMOND BANDEAU Designed as a graduated row of old-cut diamond collets, each above a bar set at intervals with a smaller rose-cut diamond collet, forming an undulating line, to a lower border of old-cut diamond collets, mounted in silver, on a wire frame, diamonds approximately 3.50cts total, frame length 30cm Condition Report: Approx. 3.50cts total - bright and lively - the rose-cut diamonds slightly more dull The front slightly loose within its structure Accompanied with its three screws Total gross weight approx. 50g The bandeau offered a fashionable and often more understated alternative to the taller, upright tiara. Its low, bandlike silhouette could be worn in the hair or across the forehead, framing the face with diamonds. Although people have worn headbands since antiquity, the jewelled bandeau became particularly fashionable in the early twentieth century, when its proportions suited changing fashions in dress and hair. A tiara's shape has always owed something to the hair beneath it. The voluminous coiffures of the 1890s provided a firm foundation for elaborate ornaments. At the turn of the century, hairstyles became softer and less rigidly arranged, and bandeaux could be worn across the front of a coil of hair, creating the outline of a coronet without the height or elaborate structure of a traditional tiara. By the 1920s, jewellers such as Cartier were interpreting the bandeau through the crisp outlines and geometric patterns of Art Deco. Its low silhouette complemented the sleek, bobbed hairstyles then in fashion. As British Vogue declared in 1925, ‘the small sleek head is the epitome of chic this season.’ Some bandeaux were also ingeniously designed to be dismantled and worn as bracelets, brooches or chokers, allowing a single jewel to serve several occasions.