Archive for Antique Brooches
Vintage Brooches Antique Brooches
Posted by: | CommentsI talk a lot about Vintage Brooches and Antique Brooches but what is the difference between the two? And does it make a difference?
The terms vintage and antique are often blurred around the edges and used inappropriately and interchangeably. Where are the boundaries and what does the difference make to the Jewellery collector?
Antique Brooches
An antique legally is over 100 years old which would make any brooch dating from the Edwardian era and before an Antique. This would make all Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian Brooches antiques. I believe that we should also include all brooches dating from before 1920 as antiques as they have more in common with antique brooches than they do with vintage brooches. For example brooches from the 1910′s to 1920′s are generally in the same style and made of the same materials as Edwardian brooches. This is most likely die to the first world war and that during this time no real advance in Jewellery manufacture were made
Vintage Brooches
As with all vintage jewellery, Vintage Brooches date from the 1920s onwards. The Art Deco era of the 1920s and 1930s, the retro era of the 1940s, the Space age 1950s and 1960s and the funky 1970s are all vintage nowadays. The 1980s are a grey area, they are rapidly becoming vintage. Perhaps we could say that anything over 25 years old is vintage but there is no legal definition covering this
Second Hand Brooches, Estate Brooches, Nearly New Brooches
These would be brooches dating from between the vintage and new. These are not quite as collectable as Vintage and Antique brooches but can still be very beautiful and excellent for everyday wear. Top name designer brooches can be excellent value second hand as can gold and silver brooches when compared to new.
Antique Brooch:
A really beautiful antique crescent brooch set with real rubies. This brooch is made of yellow metal which tests are high carat gold about 22 carat but is not hallmarked. It is set with 11 nice real ruby gemstones . This antique brooch will date from the Edwardian ear and fastens with a simple c catch. It measures up to 0.4 cm wide and 4 cms long. It is in really excellent condition
Vintage Brooch
Amazing red diamante brooch and earring set dating from circa 1940s. Note the brooch is literally covered in diamante of differing shapes, sizes and colours. The diamante are set into gold coned filigree metal. This set will date from circa 1940s. The brooch measures about 6 cms diameter and the earrings 3.2 cms long. This vintage costume jewellery set is in excellent condition
Newer Brooch
Antique Brooch of Hope, the Anchor
Posted by: | CommentsAntique BroochThe Antique Brooch comes in many shapes, sizes and materials and a collection of Antique Brooches is often made along a theme. All Georgian Brooches, Mourning Brooches, Silver and Enamel Brooches for example. Vintage Brooches blog is taking a look as some of the more interesting themes you might like to consider for your Brooch collection starting today with Anchor Brooches.
The Anchor is the Victorian symbol for Hope and as well as being found on its own the Anchor can be found in Antique Jewellery along side a heart and cross as “Faith hope and Charity”. The anchor is usually showing with an entwined rope. Victorian anchor brooches are most usually seen made of silver however they can also be made of gold and costume Jewellery. The Anchor can me pain metal, highly decorative or set with precious an semi precious stones. Most original Victorian Anchor brooches will fasten with a simple C catch so do check this out to ensure you have an original piece of antique jewellery.
Here are a couple of antique anchor hope brooches available from AntiquesAvenue:
Antique silver brooch anchor symbol of hope
A lovely antique brooch dating from the Victorian era. This silver brooch is in the shape of an anchor with a silver rope entwined round it. The Victorians saw the anchor as the symbol of hope. This silver brooch measures about 3 cms long and fastens on the back with a simple C catch
Victorian silver brooch agate set anchor
An attractive Victorian silver anchor brooch set with Scottish agate panels. To the Victorians the anchor was the symbol for hope . This piece of antique jewellery measures about 4 cms long
The Anchor symbol in history:
The anchor has been interpreted in different ways throughout history. Early Christians used the anchor as a disguised cross, and as a marker to guide the way to secret meeting places. Often set amongst rocks. It can also be an occupational symbol in sea-faring areas or the attribute of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of seamen, symbolized hope and steadfastness. An anchor with a broken chain stands for the cessation of life.
Vintage Brooches fresh in stock
Posted by: | CommentsI’d thought you would like to see the fresh stock of vintage brooches which have been added to http://www.antiquesavenue.co.uk/ this week. There are some wonderful brooches below are just three examples , A victorian brooch, an art deco brooch and a lovely trifari elephant brooch.
Look in the shop and you can also find wonderful original victorian scottish brooches, an amazing garnet lizard brooch and some wonderful scandinavian silver brooches. Later this week I am adding diamante brooches and a lovely old Ruskin arts and crafts cabochon silver example.
Antique brooch Dura Lily of Valley Victorian
This wonderful antique victorian brooch made of white metal ( tests as silver) and set with a Pietra Dura panel with a picture of a Lily of the valley. The leaves of the flower are made of malachite and the flowers in white agate. This really is a superb piece of antique jewellery.
Material: Silver and hardstones Size:5.5 x 4.3 cms Age:Mid Victorian Condition: Excellent
Crown Trifari elephant red crystal brooch
A really cute elephant brooch or pin made by Trifari with the Crown Trifari makers mark. This is gold toned metal set with cranberry coloured stones.
Size: 2.4 cms long
Condition: Excellent
vintage art deco enamel silver scarab brooch
Amazing original art deco scarab beetle brooch dating from circa 1920s. This is made of 800 silver mad decorated in red, green, blue and white enamel colours
Material:Silver and enamel Size: just under 3 cms long Age:Art Deco 1920s Condition: Excellent – no damage to the enamel Maker, Designer, Origin:European
Victorian sentimental brooches
Posted by: | CommentsThe Victorians loved their sentimental jewellery of all types, sweetheart jewellery and mourning jewellery were widely worn. During the Victorian era the development of mass producton of silver jewellery and especially silver brooches made it possible for people from all walks of life to own a sentimental brooch . These sentimental silver brooches were made in thousands and thousands of different designs and many of these have survived for todays collector and researcher of vintage jewellery and antique brooches.
Here are a few victorian sentimental silver brooches :
Name Brooches:
Just as necklaces with names on were popular in the 1980s , the later 1800s and early 1900s saw a fashion for silver name brooches. Here is a very Victorian name brooch made for a lady called Fanny:
This antique brooch dates from the Victorian era when name brooches like this were popular. Made of silver “Fanny” is entwined with leaves.This is an unusually large antique name brooch being 6.4 cms long. As with most brooches of the victorian era, this fastens with a simple C catch.
The Victorian Mizpah Brooch
These brooches are normally made of silver although occasionally a rare gold one does turn up.
A wonderful Mizpah brooch made from sterling silver and fully hallmarked for Chester 1898. Antique Mizpah brooches are popular collectables and as gifts between parted lovers.
MIZPAH, The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another.
This mizpah brooch measures about 5.1 cms long, the hinge has been moved at some time long ago and is quite solid now
Victorian sweetheart brooch
These are covered with hearts, flowers, and love birds. Occasionally these victorian sentimental brooches have tiny lockets set into them to contain a lock of a lovers hair.
This example is fully hallmarked for Chester 1895:
Collecting leaf brooches
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These leaf brooches are made of gold, silver and of costume jewellery. They can be set with precious and semi precious stones and enameled in naturalistic leaf colours. Some leaf brooches are by designers, others are just very attractive but unnamed pieces of jewellery.
Lets take a look at a few:
Victorian Name brooch with leaves
This antique brooch dates from the Victorian era when name brooches like this were popular. Made of silver “Fanny” is entwined with leaves/ This is an unusually large antique name brooch being 6.4 cms long. As with most brooches of the victorian era, this fastens with a simple C catch
Victorian pebble brooch
This must be one of the best Victorian Scottish hardstone brooches I have ever seen. Queen Victorian set the fashion for silver brooches set with Scottish hardstones and agate and they were made in all shapes and colours. This one is in the form of a fern leaf and is set with banded agates that tone wonderfully with the silver setting. The fern leaf curls in two directions giving the appearance of movement to the piece.
On the back there is an impressed Victorian registration lozenge which would allow the piece to be accurately dated and a maker identified. The brooch measures about 7.3 cms long. One of the tiny agate panels is actually vacant but it tones so well with the brooch that is is difficult to see this.
Vintage gold brooch , leaf spray
A vintage brooch made of fully hallmarked nine carat gold in the shape of a spray of fern leaves ties up with a bow. This vintage brooch is a lovely piece of jewellery being set with three garnets and three pearls. This brooch measures about 4.2 cms long
Next time I will take a look at some special Scandinavian silver leaf brooches
Victorian mourning brooches for Halloween
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The materials most often used in Victorian black jewellery are Jet, French Jet ( polished black glass), Bog Oak and enamels however early forms of resin and plastics were also found. Here are a few nice Victorian mourning brooches available from antiquesavenue:
Victorian Jet Brooch
A superb Victorian Whitby Jet mourning brooch which has been carved in 3d with a lily of the valley flower. The lily of the valley was a sentimental flower to the Victorians: – sweetness, return to happiness; humility, purity, you’ve made my life complete, birthday flower for May, Legend says that Mary’s tears turned into Lily of the valley at the foot of the cross
This Whitby jet brooch measures about 4.8 x 4 cms and is in lovely antique condition , if you look very closely you can see a small nick to one of the leaves
Victorian Pietra Dura Brooch
A wonderful Pietre dure brooch which will date from the victorian era. Pietre dure is the term given to the technique of using small, exquisitely cut and fitted, highly-polished colored stones to create what amounts to a painting in stone. Here we have a typical stone painting of flowers set into a silver mount. This brooch will date from the Victorian era. It measures a little over 4 cms long and fastens with a simple C catch. This victorian brooch is in excellent condition
Victorian Mourning Locket brooch
This antique brooch will date from the victorian age. It has a central locket compartment which is currently occupied by a picture of a lady. This central locket compartment is surrounded by a black enamel panel . The metal is gold tone. It measures 4 cms long. This brooch will date from time following the death of Price Albert when mourning jewellery was high fashion. The reverse shows signs of light wear to the gold colour of the metal
This one is a little older – A georgian brooch, not black but containing a lock of the deceaseds hair:
Georgian Mourning Brooch
A genuine antique brooch which is approximately 200 years old. This Georgian brooch has a central glass covered compartment and the metal will be gold filled ( a gold outer with metal core) The central compartment contains a weave of hair with a gold scroll over. This antique brooch is typical of Georgian jewellery.This brooch fastens with a simple C catch, it measures about 1.8 cms wide – crikey perhaps its haunted
What ever piece of antique jewellery you choose this Haloween – Happy Haunting!
porcelain plaques for antique brooches
Posted by: | CommentsYou can often find older brooches , especially Victorian brooches, set with porcelain plaques which have been painted or printed. These brooches are quite decorative and very collectible.
Try looking out for some with classical European paintings:
Hand painted with Birds brooch :
Or how about a collection of hand painted vintage floral brooches?
These three types of vintage brooch all have the inset porcelain plaque in common. They vary in age with the top one being mid-Victorian, the central one being later Victorian and the lower one being an Edwardian brooch.
All should be treated with reasonable care as porcelain chips easily and the pictures would come off if they are subjected to harsh cleaning materials. How should you clean them – hopefully a gentle wipe with a soft dry cloth. If this doesn’t work a well wrung out damp cloth or just a touch of washing up liquid if really necessary. Do not let the damp get to the setting if you can help it as most likely the settings are just costume jewellery and will tarnish and rust easily.
Porcelain plaque brooches can be found from just a few pounds upwards depending on the quality of the painting ( a named artist would increase the price) and also the metal it is set into.
Silver Brooches – vintage and antique
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I am starting my exploration of the materials that brooches are made from with Silver. Why? Well I seem to have more vintage silver brooches than those made from every other material put together. Perhaps that is because I like silver or just perhaps because more brooches were made from silver than from any other material? Certainly it has been popular in both antique and vintage brooches and remains so up to date.
Silver is a grey / white material which is a popular metal for use in jewellery as it is easy to work and durable when worn. It is also cheaper and lighter weight than platinum which is the other whiteish precious metal.
One of the popular things about silver is that it is often stamped with hallmarks, markers marks, metal purity grades and more which make it easier to identify the origins and history of your antiques. This article does not cover hallmarking – more on that later.
There are several grades of silver which you can find your brooches made from :
- - 800 This was often used for European Jewellery and is now a legal standard in the UK
- - 925 Also known as Sterling or Sterling Silver. The standard grade for English silver and most sought after
- -958 Known as Britannia Silver not often used for brooches
- -999 Almost purse silver and probably too difficult to work for jewellery
Care for your Silver Brooch
1. Cleaning
Your silver brooch will last not just your life time but for many lifetimes. Antique Brooches are still plentiful if you look on the right places . Silver does however tarnish and become dull over the years. I clean mine with a gentle wash in an electronic jewellery cleaning machine with just water and a drop of washing up liquid ( I believe you should avoid Lemon scented washing up liquids for silver). This will remove dirt and a gentle dry and polish with a soft cloth restores a good patina without shining your brooch up as new.
2. Storage
If you are going to store a brooch away for a long time I suggest you get hold of some acid free tissue paper. Avoid plastic and the standard tissue paper as these contain chemicals which will oxidise the silver over time.
Variety in Silver Brooches:
I think there are a greater variety of silver brooches than in brooches made of any other material. To name just a few (exploring these later on this blog):
Mizpah brooches, Name Brooches, Fower brooches, Mourning Brooches, Charm Brooches, Fob Watch brooches, Scottish and celtic brooches, enamel brooches. The arts and crafts movement was fond of silver brooches and during the art deco ear silver was often used to mount butterfly wings into brooches.
The silver brooch at the top of this post is a Victorian Name Brooch – Annie