Grape brooch with baroque oriental pearl 18 ct... Lot 37

Grape brooch with baroque oriental pearl 18 ct yellow gold. In two parts. Suspension on a stem with two sculpted vine leaves, set in pavé with 62 cushion-shaped old-cut diamonds (total approx. 1.62 ct, M/N, vs-si). The opulent grape pendant made of a drilled, bizarrely shaped natural pearl (so-called "monster pearl", blisters). "Monster pearl", blister, approx. 26 x 21 x 16 - 14.9 mm, cream-colored with delicate grey lustre). Not stamped. Bead surface very irregular, with two small holes on the back with leakage of dark bead substance. H 4.4 cm in total. Weight 14.44 g. Second half of the 19th century. Expertise Report no. 83146 by Elisabeth Strack, Gemmologisches Institut Hamburg, dated 15.2.2024, confirming that the large baroque pearl is a natural pearl "of the type of monster pearls known as 'soufflures' in the 19th century, whose external shape is due to the action of gases produced by fermentation of the organic substance present inside the pearl". Provenance Private collection Rhineland.