No. 15 Lover's Eye Watercolor Archival Print

An archival giclée print of an original watercolor painting of a Georgian Lover’s Eye brooch. The original brooch, from the Skier Collection (Cat. 85), is a navette-shaped brooch and pendant with seed pearls and a scalloped guilloché cobalt-enamel border, c. 1810. Blue right eye above clouds: the cobalt enamel and pearls symbolized faithfulness, constancy, and tenderness, while the clouds symbolized longing or possibly the spiritual realm. 8" × 8".

THE HISTORY: Lover's Eyes were a jewelry trend c.1785-1830 of brooches set with tiny watercolor portraits on ivory. Since they were cropped to eyes, they were in many ways more direct and intimate than traditional miniature portraits; but also because they were just eyes, they were often used as daring public testimonies of clandestine love affairs with mystery lovers.