Beschreibung:

Banded Agate, Rock Crystal Quartz and Enamel Clock by Manfred WildCirca 1989 Idar-Oberstein, Germany Agate carvings originating in Idar-Oberstein are always fine and the present one is no exception. Each of the two bears is carved from the same rough agate as displayed by their book-matched patterns of banding. The eyes are set with small diamonds, rimmed in 18K yellow gold. The spherical clock is formed of two halves of natural rock crystal quartz of high transparency with a wide border of translucent green enamel on a guilloché ground with 18K borders. Viewable from both sides, the dial and the mechanism can be seen through the front and back. The dial is inscribed Neuchatel and Swiss Made. Raised on an oval base of Russian black obsidian trimmed in brushed 18K yellow gold, signed EB for Emil Becker and M. Wild for Manfred Wild. Measuring 14 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 4in (36.9 x 14 x 10.2cm) FootnotesAccompanied by a photocopy of a certificate by Manfred Wild dated November 1989. Manfred Wild Born in 1944, Manfred Wild, an eighth-generation gem cutter, is one of the most renowned lapidary artists to emerge from Idar-Oberstein. At the age of twenty, during an apprenticeship with a gemstone merchant, he began his well-rounded educational journey in the areas of fine art, gemstone cutting, engraving and goldsmithing. Working in a family tradition of stone cutters established in 1630, Manfred Wild is one of the world's most famous creators of "objets d'art." He is best known for his virtuoso work in rare, precious and semi-precious materials carved as perfume bottles, animals, whimsical figures, flower studies, enameled eggs with concealed "surprises", cameos, chalices and objets de fantaisie made of precious stones, gold and silver. It is helpful, of course, to understand Wild's work within the greater context of 19th and 20th Century Decorative and Jewelry Arts. In addition to the influence of his own family and town, Mr. Wild follows the traditions established by René Lalique and Peter Carl Fabergé (Russian jeweler, 1846-1920) and a great number of parallels can be seen in their work. Fabergé had begun a new era in the Jewelry Arts. Prior to him, many jewelers felt the value of jewelry was intrinsic, based upon the stones (particularly diamonds) and precious metals. The artistic creativity and superior craftsmanship introduced by Fabergé made such objects transcend their "break value". Fabergé also used a number of decorative techniques attributable to French 18th Century goldsmiths, e.g. the art of guilloché, a surface treatment of metal that could make waved lines or striations in the design, either performed by machine or by hand. Atop the guilloché decoration was a translucent enameling that required the application of several coats and the "firing" of the object in an oven after each layer, a very labor-intensive technique. The limited palette of enamels used in the nineteenth century was expanded upon by Fabergé who, after much experimentation, arrived at over 140 shades. He also used natural stones often found in his local area or native to Russia, e.g. jasper, agate, bowenite, nephrite. Often his use of precious stones, including sapphires, rubies and emeralds was in an understated way, only for accents, and even then were used en cabochon. Diamonds, if used, were typically rose-cut. So many of the aforementioned decorative elements are seen the work of Wild even as they appear in the examples on these pages. When India Early Minshall, a wealthy collector of Fabergé purchased an egg in 1944, she stated, "Fabergé was called the Benvenuto Cellini of the North, but I do not think any jeweler can ever be compared to him"—She could not know that someday the work of Manfred Wild would rival the work of the great Russian jeweler...... Mr. Wild's works are displayed in museums throughout the world including: The German Gemstone Museum in Idar-Oberstein, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., The Harvard Museum in Boston, The Ca