Antique French ATALA Cufflinks Victorian rose gold filled Art Nouveau Indian figural woman

Antique ATALA Cufflinks Victorian rose gold filled Art Nouveau Indian figural woman. What a rare treasure these antique cufflinks are! The young Indian woman ( Chactas)  is from the novel Atala by Chareaubriand .    Chateaubriand was the giant of French literature in the early nineteenth century. Drawing on eighteenth-century English romanticists, on explorers in America, and on Goethe's Werther, he had a profound effect on French writers from Victor Hugo and Lamartine to George Sand and Flaubert. A quixotic and paradoxical personality, he combined impressive careers as a brilliant prose-poet, a spiritual guide, a high-ranking diplomat, and an enterprising lover.   Atala and René are his two best-known works, reflecting not only his own joys, aspirations, and despair, but the emerging tastes of a new literary era. Atala is the passionate and tragic love story of a young Indian couple wandering in the wilderness, enthralled by the beauties of nature, drawn to a revivified Christianity by its esthetic charm and consoling beneficence, and finally succumbing to the cruelty of fate. Perhaps even more than Werther or Childe Harold, René embodies the romantic hero, and is not wholly foreign to the disorientation of youth today. Solitary, mysterious, ardent, and poetic, he is in open revolt against a society whose values he rejects. Without question, this archetype played a large part in determining the course of French literature up to the 1850's.   These fabulous old cufflinks are rose gold filled on the back ( which is hinged and it flips left and right, see photo)...and yellow gold filled on the front. The attention to detail on these is lovely and you can really see here face well. A real collectors treat with a love story that comes along with it.      VintageSparkles offers Layaway on all our pieces regardless of which site it comes from.All layaway payments will need to be in the form of a check or money order only. Please remember that vintage & antique items are not mint, nor are they perfect but they sure are full of old history and charm. Please use photos to make your decisions and read our policies prior to buying so you can have an excellent experience with us.    Please use this number when ordering ga000408.    If you want to see more of these pretties this is the link to my etsy store. http://www.vintagesparkles.etsy.com/ or visit our gallery on pinterest where you can see all our pieces at once  http://pinterest.com/etsyvsparkles/sparkles-in-my-etsy-store/