Art Price Index: The Fiery Opal

The semi-precious stone forsaken in the 19th century took its revenge with the arrival of Art Nouveau.

€183,280
René Lalique (1860-1945), ca. 1900-1908, yellow gold pendant with four stylised dragonflies with spread wings in plique-à-jour enamel and diamonds, containing a doublet opal in a closed setting, l. 51.5 cm.
Paris, Drouot, 29 November 2017. Thierry de Maigret auction house. Mr Vion.

Popular misconceptions must be trounced. During Antiquity and the centuries that followed, people ascribed many virtues to opals, and Emperor Napoleon I even gave Josephine a magnificent brilliant red fire opal, the "Burning of Troy": the first to receive a name. But in 1829, in his novel Anne of Geierstein , Walter Scott attributed the beautiful heroine's…

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