An exceptional gold and enamelled articulated bracelet
by Lucien Falize,

the openwork gold mounts decorated with chased and engraved
floral and foliate motifs and grotesque masks in the Renaissance taste,
set with five circular painted enamelled panels by Alfred Meyer
depicting profile busts of male figures in plumed helmets
and female figures sporting elaborate head-dresses within circular gold frames.
Paris, c.1878.

Signed on the clasp with Lucien Falize’s poinçon registered in 1875,
the enamelled panels bearing Alfred Meyer’s initials
and signed ‘A. Meyer’ on the reverse.

The detailed ‘Notice’ accompanying Lucien Falize’s displayat the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris lists a
‘Chased gold bracelet decorated with painted enamels (Virgilius Solis)’.Virgil Solis (Nuremberg 1514-1562) was a
memberof a prolific family of artists and the decorative elements found in his many prints, engravings, etchings and
woodcutsare echoed in the chased gold mounts of the Falize bracelet.

Given the lavish scale of the enamelled gold jewel and the fact that it bears a poinçon (which is rare in works by Falize), the bracelet
was undoubtedly intended as awork to be exhibited at an Exposition Universelle.The fact that that this particular poinçon
is consistent in datewith the Exposition of 1878, and that a bracelet of this description is listed in the Notice,
indicates that this isthe very jewel which formed part of Lucien Falize’s display.