Marcus & Co. Art Nouveau Enamel Iris Brooch

This astonishing Art Nouveau jewel belongs to the series of Marcus plique-à-jour flowers, likely designed by George Marcus, the family's second generation artistic leader, in cooperation with French and American artisans. Though now unsigned, likely due to the change in findings which removed the signature plaque, the work is clearly- in structure, design and craft - the product of the same cooperative and collaborating hands and minds. An intellectual and inquisitive artist who who took an interest in many media, from sculpture to literature to theater, George was highly attuned to the sensitive naturalism of leading French Art Nouveau designers like Lalique and Vever, had met Vever in 1893, and visited Europe twice yearly. The Marcus flower series includes the Marcus & Co. morning glory pendant, once owned by the actress Ada Rehan, now in the collection of the Newark Museum, both jewels signed. Like this iris brooch, one of whose blossoms is fully realized but faces backward, the Newark pendant also features a blue flower which is turned to face the wearer. Of greater size, delicacy, shaded coloration, and three dimensionality than flower jewels by Lalique, Fouquet, Vever, Thesmar or Feuillâtre, this iris is the fruit of a collaboration of this imaginative New York firm, its talented designer, and a workshop of Parisian masters. A creative Marcus & Co. window display of numerous plique-à-jour enamel jewels such as the morning glory and other species, some of whose designs are preserved in the firm's archives at Dartmouth, were vividly described by a journalist for Town & Country in January of 1906. The writer recorded the astonishment of all onlookers, including wealthy clients, who stood gaping at the jewels in the firm's Fifth Avenue show windows, impeding the flow of pedestrian traffic on the sidewalks.