Van Cleef & Arpels Bulldog Brooch

Signed Van Cleef & Arpels with the workshop number 77.551 and the maker's mark of Péry et Fils, this gold bulldog sits with monocle in place and a black-and-white enamel bow tie under its jowls. The face is hand-chased — wrinkles, jowls, the spotted dappling of the muzzle all rendered in 18-karat yellow gold — with a single rose cut diamond set into the monocle's bezel and a chain link running to the right ear. A small cabochon ruby fills the open eye. Péry et Fils, founded in Paris in the 1930s, was one of Van Cleef's principal mid-century workshops, and the maison's animal portraits from this period sit among the most collected of all post-war French jewelry.