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David Webb Carved Rock Crystal and Diamond Zebra Bracelet
$110,000
This superb rock crystal and diamond zebra bangle bracelet by David Webb New York dates from the 1990s.. The bracelet is composed of carved rock crystal double zebra heads with diamond collars and halters with ruby accents grasping a diamond ring in their mouths between them, both enhanced by emerald eyes, and completed by a ring of carved rock crystal evoking stripes, with a concealed hinge, mounted in platinum and 18K gold. One of Webb’s most beloved designs, this hard-to-find form of the zebra bracelet epitomizes the designer’s philosophy of playful day-to-night glamor.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: BA-20130
Artist: David Webb, New York
Country: United States
Circa: 1990s.
Size: 6.50” internal circumference
Materials: 176 old European/ round brilliant-cut diamonds (approximate total weight 8.80 carats); 4 pear-shaped emeralds (approximate total weight 0.92 carats); 6 oval-cut rubies (approximate total weight 2.60 carats); Carved rock crystal; Platinum; 18K gold
Signed: “Webb ® PLAT 900”
Documentation/Literature: A similar bracelet by David Webb is pictured in David Webb: The Quintessential American Jeweler by Ruth A. Peltason, New York: Assouline, 2013, p. 163
David Webb drew inspiration from the ageless forms of classical jewelry he sketched at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and he explored them in his own work without any sense of constraint. The Met holds in its collection a pair of carved rock crystal and gold ram’s head bracelets, part of the mysterious Ganymede jewelry hoard found at Thessaloniki, one of the wealthiest cities of the ancient Aegean. The double-headed animal bracelet is a Greek interpretation of an even more ancient form, linked to the earliest civilizations in the Near East, and may have reached Greek jewelers through the cultural crossroads of Cyprus. With a wink to the past, Webb streamlined and volumized the form, re-envisioning it with friendly-looking zebras and realizing it fully in luminous rock crystal, sparkling with diamond and colored stone highlights.