This 18ct two-colour gold and enamel Hebe brooch to a design by Georges Braque, c.1962, carries an estimate of $2500-3500 in Leslie Hindman’s December 3 auction.
It is one of two pieces of Bijoux de Braque jewellery from the collection of Stephen and Barbara Byer of Milwaukee.
Braque designed jewellery in the last three years of his life, from 1960-63, with the collection (each piece titled after a Greek mythological character) based on works he had drawn or painted during his career. They were made into jewellery with the help of the lapidary Heger de Loewenfeld.
Braque’s 3in (8cm) high Surrealist design Hebe can be read as a woman in profile or a school of fish swimming within a field of green enamelled seaweed. It is based on a drawing made in 1950 called Tête grecque.
