The wing was a favourite and recurring motif in late 19th century jewellery, continuing in a slender refined form into the first decade of the 20th century. Originally associated with Hermes, messenger of the gods with his winged helmet and shoes, the motif enjoyed a revival in the 1880s in both France and England where it was much favoured by artist-jewellers. In 1883 the Parisian
jeweller Alphonse Fouquet designed a winged tiara, working in his detailed figurative neo-Renaissance style and the wing remained a part of Fouquet's iconography throughout the Art Nouveau period.

It was Cartier, for an order from J.P. Morgan, who adapted the wing to a design for an elegant diamond tiara in 1901. The tiara with ten wings was a great success and was shortly followed in
1909 by an expensive version set with a fancy brown 33 carat associated with this decade of supreme diamond jewellery.