Archive for Antique Brooches
100 years of brooches
Posted by: | CommentsI know many visitors to AntiquesAvenue are fond of antique and Vintage brooches. Today I have been adding a few lovely brooches from the Victorian era and through the 1900s. Lets take a tour of 100 years of brooches.
Victorian bird brooch
Starting with this Antique Brooch a Victorian stunner ( ok its not on the site yet, I want to keep it for myself for a short while ) This exotic bird is set with turquoise, pearl and has a garnet red eye. The bird is silver and gold and he sits on a multi coloured gold branch and brooch. This brooch is quite an impressive size at 5.7 cms long. It dates from the later 1800s. Watch out for this beauty coming to AntiquesAvenue later this year.
The rest of the Vintage Brooches here in this blog entry are already on antiquesavenue.co.uk
Citrine Brooch
A real sunshine brooch, its set with three real citrines and sparkles a wonderful golden colour. Of course these citrines are set into gold .
Violin Brooch
An unusual brooch for a music lover, made of silver in the shape of a violin.
Spitfire brooch
How about this solid gold brooch made in the shape of a spitfire and dating from the 1930s – sure to be a hit with flying enthusiasts.
Gold owl brooch
Finally for today here is a lovely gold owl brooch with diamond eyes . This is jut a few of the antique and vintage brooches I have added today so do pop over to www. antiquesavenue.co.uk to look.
Tell Vintage Jewellery from Antique Jewellery by the hinge
Posted by: | CommentsHinges are most often found on brooches rather than any other form of jewellery. By just looking at the hinge it is often possible to date a brooch broadly into the 1800s ( Georgian and Victorian) vs the 1900s ( Edwardian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, onwards). There are two important types of hinge to consider on vintage and antique brooches;
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Amethyst , Amethyst coloured, Amethyst Style
Posted by: | CommentsAntique dealers and auctioneers have a special ( an completely legal ) way of describing items when they are selling them to make them appear better than they really are. I am going to use three antique brooches to help show you what I mean.
This brooch below I am describing as being set with an amethyst. It means just that the stone is a real amethyst:
Amethyst Brooch
Here is Victorian Brooch with “Amethyst coloured stones”. This means they could be made of glass or an other imitation, they might be real ( they are not in this case). All I am describing here is the colour:
Amethyst coloured stones
Faux Amethyst
Other words to look out for when used in conjunction with the main word are Style, Type and Fashion. Look carefully at the next auction catalogue or internet site you read and you will spot this type of description quite frequently, its quite legitimate to use these terms and I do so myself . There must be many more similar words as well – can you think of any?
The Victorian Nanny Pin Brooch
Posted by: | CommentsHere is a very strange and rare type of brooch – The Nanny pin.
Here is a rare brooch – its only the third one of these I’ve had in stock in the last 15 years. This is known as a Nanny pin brooch. It dates from the Edwardian era ( possibly late victorian) and is set with “Goldstone” which glitters wonderfully.
The reason it is know as a “Nanny pin ” is that one end unscrews Inside the Nanny would keep a needle and cotton ready for sewing up her little charges clothes if they got torn whilst they were out. How quaint.
This antique brooch measures 5 cms long
Goldstone is acutally a form of glass rather than a natural gemstone. It has been made with tiny copper inclusions which glitter and look like flecks of gold.
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- Nanny pin brooch
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- open Nanny pin