Brooches

  • Fan

    This Fan brooch is marked silver and ‘Siam’.  Since 1949 Siam has been called Thailand. The majority of Siamese Silver jewellery was made between 1930s and 1990s, with figures, buildings or animals depicting characters and scenes from Buddhist and Hindu tales and religious texts. Unusually for a piece of Siamese silver, my brooch depicts a…

  • Mr & Mrs Squirrel

    These two brooches depict a pair of squirrels. A gentleman in a top hat, possibly holding a baton or scroll, why I’m not sure, and a lady wearing a hat and holding a bunch of flowers, which makes far more sense, were manufactured by Coro.  They are known as ‘jelly belly pins’ because their middles…

  • Lollipop Sticks

    This unusual brooch is by Belgian designer An Alleweireldt who is now based in London.  An takes her inspiration from working with the possibilities and restrictions of daily materials.  She finds new ways to combine these everyday materials with precious metals and gem stones. She has used rubber flooring tiles, vinyl records and string.  But…

  • Lucky Cameo

    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…

  • Shakespeare Quote

    William Shakespeare was born and died on 23rd April and 2016 is his 400th anniversary. The 23rd April is also St George’s day, the patron saint of England. This month’s brooch is made by the small crafting company Scibbelicious located in Wales started by an English teacher. They are based in an old converted barn…

  • Coach & Horses

    This small Sterling Silver brooch was made in Germany in the 1930s or maybe even earlier.  The reason I like it so much is the delicate detail of the enamelling and the added marcasites which give this brooch its charm.  The coach part of the brooch is just 2.5 cm long and within this tiny…

  • Geisha Girl & Domino

    The Geisha Girl is by the Spanish design company Ceraselle, based in Seville.  She is made out of ceramic.  My husband bought her for me as a Christmas present from the Victoria and Albert museum in London.  It was one of the pieces inspired by the museum’s refurbished Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art, which reopened…

  • Map of London

    This brooch is made of powder coated steel and the little red dot is in fact a magnet which you can move around to show where you are at any given point in time.  The brooch is designed by Garudio Studiage in Peckham, London, a creative collective set up by Chris Ratcliffe, Laura Cave, Anna…

  • Christmas Stocking

    This Christmas Stocking is by Weiss one of the most popular costume jewellery firms in America.  They were based in New York but they did not manufacture their own jewellery, there is in fact some dispute as to whether they even designed their own jewellery. In essence Albert Weiss was the supreme costume jewellery marketer,…

  • Citrine and Pearls

    This brooch is dainty, measuring less than an inch (2 cm) and the central stone is a delicate colour. The name Citrine comes from its yellow colour, and the first recorded use of citrine as a colour in English was in 1386. Its Latin origin is ‘citrino’ meaning lemon.  Citrines can range in colour from pale yellow…