Turquoise and enamel necklace

Watts' greatest passion was the skilled enamelling of plaques, metalwork, and pieces of jewellery and this necklace is a rare example of his mature work. Carefully balanced, festooned chains interspersed with tiny freshwater pearls support foiled enamel pendants and turquoise stones. His enamelling skills are apparent in the remarkable depth and brilliance of colour of the pendants, shading from palest blue to bright turquoise. Here he has utilised his favoured foiled enamelling to achieve such delicacy of tone and detail. In this technique layers of translucent colour were slowly built upon a ground of textured metal. Each layer of colour, mixed with oil or water, was applied and fired individually to create the desired effect and the temperature carefully monitored to ensure that the previous work was not damaged.