147 - FRED PARIS: A FINE AND RARE MOTHER-OF-PEARL, EMERALD, SAPPHIRE AND DIAMOND EVENING BAG, CIRCA 1980-1990 Of stylised butterfly design, the wings of dark grey mother-of-pearl marquetry with gold dividers, the body set with a carved emerald within a surround of brilliant-cut diamonds, the head set with a cabochon sapphire, the polished gold antennae holding the black silk cord shoulder strap with tasselled ends, the sides and reverse and push-opener of white mother-of-pearl mosaic, opening to reveal a suede-lined interior with a bevelled mirror, mounted in 18K gold, signed Fred Paris, numbered, with maker's marks 'PB' for Pierre Brun, French assay marks, emerald approximately 19.44mm x 12.86mm, sapphire approximately 10mm x 8.52mm, with fitted cover case, width approximately 18cm, height 12.5cm

FRED PARIS: A FINE AND RARE MOTHER-OF-PEARL, EMERALD, SAPPHIRE AND DIAMOND EVENING BAG, CIRCA 1980-1990 Of stylised butterfly design, the wings of dark grey mother-of-pearl marquetry with gold dividers, the body set with a carved emerald within a surround of brilliant-cut diamonds, the head set with a cabochon sapphire, the polished gold antennae holding the black silk cord shoulder strap with tasselled ends, the sides and reverse and push-opener of white mother-of-pearl mosaic, opening to reveal a suede-lined interior with a bevelled mirror, mounted in 18K gold, signed Fred Paris, numbered, with maker's marks 'PB' for Pierre Brun, French assay marks, emerald approximately 19.44mm x 12.86mm, sapphire approximately 10mm x 8.52mm, with fitted cover case, width approximately 18cm, height 12.5cm Condition Report: emerald: approximately 19.44mm x 12.86mm, of bluish-green hue, medium tone, translucent, a couple of minor scratches visible under 10x magnification Sapphire: approximately 10mm x 8.52mm, of blue hue, medium tone, good transparency, silk visible under a bright light source and 10x magnification Diamonds: bright and lively With maker's mark for Pierre Brun located inside the clutch and eagle's head for French 18K gold on various locations Mirror: no damage observed Signature Fred Paris located on gold border above mirror Numbered difficult to read, maybe 8908 Silk rope: a little wear on one side Minor scratches visible under a bright light source due to little wear Overall in good condition Total gross weight approx. 655g Fred Samuel was born in Buenos Aires in 1908, the son of a jeweller. He arrived in Paris at age sixteen, just as Japanese cultured pearls were beginning to change the pearl trade, and trained with the Worms brothers, dealers in pearls and gemstones, who were among their early importers into France. In 1936, Fred Samuel opened his shop at 6 rue Royale, away from the established jewellery houses of Place Vendôme, and introduced himself on his business card as a ‘modern jeweller and designer’, signalling his ambition to develop a style of his own. Cultured pearls became his speciality. He had a particular eye for those with a creamy body colour and a faint pink overtone, a combination that came to be known as the ‘Fred colour’. Samuel traced his fascination with gemstones to the sunlight he remembered from his childhood in Argentina. In his memoirs, he described stones as both receptacles and sources of light. Pearls offered a subtle example: their lustre comes from nacre, the same material that lines the inside of certain shells. Its minute layers interact with light, so that hints of colour appear and recede as the angle changes. On a pearl, this effect plays across a small, curved surface. Mother of pearl marquetry gave Fred’s designs room to work with these effects on an altogether different scale. The jewelled evening accessory was already part of Parisian life when Samuel opened his shop on rue Royale. The fitted cases of the 1930s had compartments for everything from a powder compact to a miniature watch. In the 1980s and 1990s, during a particularly inventive period in which Fred revisited earlier jewellery trends, the house gave the evening bag a sculptural character of its own. Conceived as pieces of high jewellery, the bags combined white or grey mother of pearl with gold, diamonds and coloured stones for a high impact effect. A butterfly, a scarab or a lion’s head might determine the entire shape of a bag. The making was entrusted to the Paris workshop of Jean-Pierre Brun, a master goldsmith whose family company, founded by his father Pierre in 1936, produced gold work for Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron and Chaumet, and had been fashioning gold evening bags and compacts for the great houses since the 1960s. The Fred archives record that some examples took more than 700 hours to make. Each piece of shell had to fit precisely, and its sheen mattered as much as its colour. Against the broad glow of the nacre, the diamonds could flash and the coloured stones could lend depth. In Memoirs of a Jeweller, Samuel recalls the series and singles out the beauty of mother-of-pearl, whose soft, rippling sheen comes into its own in evening light. It was a quality best seen in movement. A turn of the wrist might catch a diamond for an instant, then send a wash of colour across shell that had looked almost matte a moment before.