A rare Schiaparelli insect collar necklace from the Autumn/Winter 1938 “Pagan” collection, fashioned in gold-tone metal as an open-front circlet of delicately modelled leaves painted red and green, set with a bee and beetle and hinged at the back. Drawing on the naturalistic and Surrealist vocabulary that defined Elsa Schiaparelli’s work of the late 1930s, the necklace belongs to one of the house’s most celebrated pre-war collections; related jewels are preserved in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Another necklace from the Pagan Collection was published in:
A. Bolton, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024
Another necklace from the Pagan Collection was exhibited in:
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, May 10 - September 2, 2024
Other ensembles and necklaces from the Pagan Collection are in the collections of:
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Mme Elsa Schiaparelli (Evening dress, 1938)
London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Gift of Lady Alexandra Trevor-Roper, (Evening Suit and Hat, 1938)
London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Gift of Miss Ruth Ford (Choker, 1938)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Millicent Huttleston Rogers (Evening dress, 1938)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Arturo and Paul Peralta-Ramos (Necklace, 1938)
Materials: Gilt Metal
Measurements: 31cm W x 17 cm L
