This is the first cameo I ever bought. I had to fight off several dealers at an auction in Oxford who also had their beady eyes on it. It is a large shell cameo, set in gold. The overall brooch measures three inches across (7cm) with the actual cameo measuring a full two and half inches (6cm). It is mid-Victorian in date with a long sharp pin, long pins are characteristic of 19th century brooches and they do not have ‘roll over catches’. I have to be careful how I position the brooch otherwise it has a tendency to stick into me. I call it my lucky brooch.
Firstly, I like to wear it when I go to an auction. I often find I’m lucky in my purchases especially if they are jewellery. I wore it once to an auction and was lucky enough to buy an adorable miniature bronze statue of a giraffe. It doesn’t always work, the last auction I wore it to I missed out on a wonderful shell brooch, it went up, up and away in price leaving me holding my bidding paddle firmly on my lap. But I did have a chance to try on the wonderful shell brooch at the viewing, so not all bad.
Secondly, this was the brooch I was wearing when I first met Mel Ashby, who did the very first The Casket of Fictional Delights website way back in 2011, lots has changed since those early days. We were sitting at Newcastle University café having a cup of tea, by the way tea is our beverage of choice, discussing the website and Mel asked about a theme. It had never occurred to me I would need a theme. My husband pointed out I loved jewellery, especially brooches. Mel asked how many I had; at that point I had no idea. When I went home and counted them all up I was utterly amazed, I thought I only had a few, but I had hundreds. So it is down to this very brooch that the concept of The Casket was born.
The brooch itself depicts a woman with a child on her lap and two men. She is holding the hand of the younger man and the older man has his hand on her knee, he also has a shepherd’s crook. I’ve tried to find out exactly what the brooch might mean. There are several possible interpretations. The ages of man, fidelity, infidelity, it’s a wise man who knows his own father. Take your pick. Or if you know let me know.