Crown Trifari Emerald Gripoix Floral Parure

Trifari sold jewelry in three grades — good, better, best — and then, at the holidays, made a fourth grade for its most valued customers that was never officially named. This 1950s parure is one of those. A necklace, bracelet, and clip earrings, gold-tone throughout, set with crystal marquise rhinestones and Trifari’s magnificent Gripoix-style poured emerald-green glass “berries” on every piece. Gripoix is the Parisian art of pouring molten glass by hand into metal cells — the same technique that dressed Chanel — and its depth of color simply cannot be faked with cut stones. These special sets were made in tiny quantities and sold only at the great department stores: Macy’s in New York, Marshall Field’s in Chicago. To own the complete suite, matched and intact, is to own Trifari at its most exclusive — the tier above “best,” made for the few who were asked.