Description

A lot of what defines mid-century modernist jewellery is restraint, clean form, honest material, minimal ornament. This sleeping cat brooch is a reminder that the same designers working in that language were entirely capable of warmth and humour too. It’s figurative rather than abstract, but rendered with the same structural, simplified sensibility as the more austere pieces elsewhere in this collection.

Figurative modernist jewellery, animals especially, occupied a real place in mid-century design, not a lapse from the movement’s principles but an extension of them.

Why pieces like this are worth taking seriously. Simplifying a recognisable, expressive form down to its essentials without losing what makes it recognisable is a genuine skill, not a lesser one.

What to look for. The silhouette should read clearly as a sleeping cat from across a room, not just up close. This one passes easily.

This piece was part of a small, genuinely personal collection of mid-century and antique jewellery, gathered over years rather than acquired for resale. It has since sold.