SILVER AND JEWELLERY SALE (A448) Tue, 26th Jun 2012 Viewing: 26JUN12 - STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET - BAND Lot 392

Estimate: £2000 - £3000 + Fees A white gold rock crystal A white gold rock crystal, diamond, sapphire and cultured pearl brooch, c.1950, the carved rock crystal head, possibly depicting Neptune, or a satyr, with cabochon sapphire eyes, diamond set hair, beard and facial features, with a graduated bequeathed on her death to Lady Diana Cooper. cultured pearl cup and peg set headdress. Tested as approximately 18ct gold. Attributed to Enrico Serafini (1913-1968).

Provenance: bequeathed this brooch on her death in 1972 to the vendor, a relative.

Violet Trefusis, daughter of , was born in London in 1894 and died in Florence in 1972, the elder daughter of the Hon. George Keppel, youngest son of the seventh , and Alice Frederica née Edmonstone. A writer and socialite, she became celebrated as the lover of Vita Nicolson née Sackville-West. She married Denys Trefusis in 1919; the marriage was described as 'bohemian', and her affair with Vita Sackville-West continued until the latter transferred her affections to . Violet and Denys settled in Paris, where Denys, who was in poor health, died in 1929. Violet wrote several novels and entered the musical and literary circle of the Princesse de Polignac, née , heiress to the Singer family sewing machine fortune. With her aid, Violet bought the Tour de St Loup, a country house south-east of Paris where, both before the war and after, she entertained writers, painters and musicians such as Colette, Jean Cocteau and Georges Auric, and politicians such as François Mitterrand. When her mother died in 1947, she was left a life interest in her parents' villa in , the Villa dell'Ombrellino in Florence, formerly the property of the astronomer, Galileo, which she spent considerable time and money on beautifying.

Enrico Serafini was born in Florence, had a workshop in Piazza Santa Felicità in that city in 1947, and quickly established a successful business creating jewellery for many celebrities of the age, including John Steinbeck and Adlai Stevenson.

John Phillips, Violet's literary agent, recalls accompanying her to Serafini's establishment, where she commissioned two brooches, one believed to be the lot on offer, and the other, in the form of a unicorn, which she