An old French term, “en tremblant” in jewellery industry lexicon refers to the “trembling” feature of a piece of jewel, particularly brooches. Invented in the 18th century (.... before the advent of electricity. The trembling effect was most striking when the stones moved in candlelight.....) in the ateliers of Paris, the craft involves mounting parts of a diamond jewellery creation on wire-coiled springs to create realistic movement and height, resulting in more volume, sparkle and liveliness. The en tremblant technique was especially popular for floral-motif jewels, which featured delicately quivering flowerheads, as well as bejewelled butterfly or dragonfly wings.
Deeply inspired by the beauty and ingenuity of antique French en tremblant designs, Bulgari started to produce a breathtaking series of “tremblant brooches” in the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, the Italian jeweller was widely considered to have perfected the technique. Its repertoire of floral compositions spanned bouquets, baskets and sprays of diamonds and other precious gems.
But even the world of high-end costume jewelery has used this technique, and, although not easily, we can find beautiful examples of tremblant pins, at non-prohibitive prices!