This brooch is by Swedish company G. Dahlgren & Co made of silver and from the 1940s. Gustav Dahlgren founded the company in 1845, in Malmö in southern Sweden. Malmö is a port town almost directly opposite Copenhagen and one has to wonder whether Dahlgren’s work influenced Georg Jensen the well-known Danish designer who established his business in Copenhagen in 1901. Gustav Dahlgren was born in 1815 and was a successful jeweller, businessman and philanthropist. At some point a branch of the business was opened in Stockholm. Gustav died in 1875, he did not have any children to leave his successful business to, so his siblings continued running the company. There were many ups and downs and a change of ownership, but the company did continue into the late 20th century.
In ancient Mesopotamia (2,000BC), doves were prominent symbols of Inanna-Ishtar, the goddess of love, sexuality, and war and in Japanese mythology, doves are associated with Hachiman a divinity of archery and war. In classical Greece the goddess Aphrodite frequently appears with doves and her temple on the Acropolis in Athens was decorated with sculptures of doves.
In the Old Testament Noah sends out a Dove who returns with a flowering twig symbolising renewal and the end of the flood. And in the Christian church the Dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Today the imagery of a Dove with an olive branch epitomised by Pablo Picasso in numerous versions, is a symbol of peace. In 1949 it was used to illustrate a poster at the Paris Peace Congress.
And in 1952 at the World Peace Council Congress held in East Berlin, Picasso’s dove was above the stage.
I choose my Brooches of the Month several years in advance. This is so I can send them to a professional photographer Mark Colliton who takes the magnificent images you see on the website. This particular brooch was chosen back in September 2023. Who knew back then it would be so relevant to today with the various conflicts raging around the world? Or perhaps it is just a sad reflection of the times we live in that it would not have mattered when this poignant brooch was posted, there would be somewhere in the world a war being waged.