Put two daisies on a courting sofa, add a green leaf for some moxie, string a series of these to a reasonable length, join the ends with a bichha cord and ---- voila ---- you have a Daisy Chain....

Put two daisies on a courting sofa, add a green leaf for some moxie, string a series of these to a reasonable length, join the ends with a bichha cord and ---- voila ---- you have a Daisy Chain.

The Victorian tete-a-tete settee (or courting sofa) becomes vital to the form of this supremely elegant mala and the reason why its middle name is 'Love' is because that's what it's all about.

Far from being a boring old garland, this cleverly charming jewel uses colour and construct to great effect in proposing a scene of flirtation between two daisies whose blush-pink mina leads us to believe there might just be a new love in the air, a feeling further strengthened by the greenness of the leaves. Make no mistakes about it: the workmanship is extraordinary ----- a masterclass in smithying, arrangement, and enamelling. The serpentine settees, though handmade each time, are identical; the rings that connect them have two sequins on the flat bands so that they unfailingly catch the light; the nervure of the leaves shows through the mina despite the surface being too small for buffing; and the colour of the flowers ---- barely pink blush ---- is an impossibility, approximating, we dare say, a hue that's likely to be found on the dresses of Degas's 'Dancers Backstage'. And, in the spirit of his "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see," stands this simple brumal offering in pure guinea gold, a wonderful, wonderful jewel indited with such care and love and consideration that it might just be raised to art if you deem it so.

In the end, it's a chain to be worn, but one that needs to be deeply felt as well, for even if you don't need love you think, it is such an ornament as will make certain love needs you ---- whatever your age, whatever the time ---- and will find a way to make love fall in love with you and you with love, all over again. Be prepared.