I will always love Art Deco jewelry, but I’ve noticed myself being drawn more and more towards Victorian pieces recently. There’s often such a delicate complexity about them.

This beautiful thing can be described rather simply. Sotheby’s says “The articulated band suspending tassels, applied with guilloché enamel and highlighted with circular-cut and rose diamonds, length approximately 165mm, French assay and indistinct maker’s marks.”

There’s a lot going on here; the longer you look, the more you notice. We have the articulated gold and guilloché enamel band, the black details in the enamel, the gold criss-crosses through the blue, the diamonds at the intersections, the rope-like gold detail along the edges of the wide band, the diamond fleur-de-lis detailing at the end, and finally the spectacular spike-like diamond and gold tassels.

Despite all of that, this Victorian gold, enamel, and diamond bracelet is elegant and streamlined. It’s worthy of admiration, but doesn’t scream for it.

I’d wear it. Would you?

This Victorian gold, enamel, and diamond bracelet was listed in Sotheby’s December 2012 The Jewellery Collection of the Late Michael Wellby: An Eclectic Eye – Jewels Spanning Four Centuries sale. All images and info are thanks to Sotheby’s.