Brooch Art Deco brooch in gilded bronze and enamel "Grand Feu" - Jean Augis - Circa 1930 - Exclusive

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND THE HOUSE AUGIS DYNASTY: This exceptional jewel of art is not a common mass-produced item, but a work by a true author signed by one of the most cultured names in French jewelry of the 20th century. Jean Augis belonged to the historic dynasty of jewelers who founded the famous Maison Augis in Lyon in 1830. While the family’s main workshop pursued traditional commercial production (later becoming world-renowned for inventing the famous “Médaille d'Amour”), Jean chose a strictly artistic, sculptural, and avant-garde path. After completing his art studies in Paris at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, Jean Augis returned to Lyon where he became a central figure in the city’s cultural life, eventually holding the honorific position of President of the Société Lyonnaise des Beaux-Arts. Within the family workshops he created the elite line named “Les Bijoux Artistiques de Jean Augis,” designed to give life to real wearable works of art, now sought after at international modern art auctions. THE RIGOROUS AESTHETIC OF FRENCH ART DECO: This brooch represents a perfect and masterful articulation of the geometric rigor and aesthetic that characterized the avant-garde of French jewelry in the 1930s. The piece deliberately moves away from classical floral or religious themes to embrace the purity of lines, mathematical symmetry, and visual luxury typical of the Art Déco movement. The object is dominated on the front by a refined and rigorous rectangular grid composition: a regular, perfectly mirroring checkerboard formed by regular compartments in which a cobalt blue vitreous enamel with a highly glossy and mirror-like finish has been fused. The stark, vibrant color contrast between the depth of the blue and the warm gold of the bronze setting faithfully embodies the visual vocabulary, architectural elegance, and Oltralpe glamour of the era. SCULPTURAL TECHNIQUE AND STRUCTURAL DETAILS: Jean Augis’s sculptural approach is evident in the choice to ennoble strong, heavy materials like bronze worked to substantial thickness. The outer frame is punctuated by a symmetric sequence of 16 hexagonal, honeycomb-like protruding blocks that give the jewel a solid, monumental, and almost architectural character, indeed anticipating the later Brutalist trends. The substantial structural weight, measuring an impressive 16.14 grams, testifies to the material generosity and the original density of the bronze cast by the Maison, providing material authenticity evidence compared to later lightweight alloy costume jewelry. Turning the piece over, the back reveals the reinforcing geometric grid and the original pin closure system with vintage safety mechanism, perfectly intact and functional. In the lower right corner lies the authentic, sharp-engraved signature of the artist: “Jean Augis.” CONDITION AS AN INVESTMENT: The brooch presents itself in exceptional preservation for a vitreous piece from the 1930s. The original enamel fired at very high temperature (émail grand feu) retains its original glassy luster and is 100% intact, completely free of chipping, filament, color loss, or restorative intervention. An extraordinary buying opportunity for international collectors of fine art jewelry, jewelry historians, and lovers of 20th-century Art Deco design.