Brooches

  • Orchid

    This brooch is made of silver in the form of an orchid. Bond-Boyd was established in 1940 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  It is a family firm still in operation today and still manufactures in its hometown.  Nowadays the company specialises in producing corporate jewellery; cufflinks, tie pins with company logos or symbols.  They also make…

  • Three City Gents

    These brooches were designed by Deborah Crow as part of the Transport for London brooch competition and exhibition based on the TubeFlash project.  In 2017 TfL joined forces with Craft Central to hold a competition to design new brooches for sale as part of the TfL product range.  The winning brooches were part of the…

  • Flower Cart

    This dainty brooch is made of silver with marcasite and enamel decoration. The little wheels spin round and the brooch is designed as a three-dimensional piece. The canopy of the cart comes out from the main part of the design. Most brooches are designed ‘flat’ but adding a third dimension adds depth and interest. Marcasite…

  • Three Queens

    This elegant brooch is by the designer and jewellery maker Ella Fearon-Low, who I met a few years ago at the London Dazzle exhibition. We quickly began a conversation about brooches and arranged for Ella to come and view my collection. We had a wonderful afternoon and over a cup of tea and piece of…

  • Grasshopper Weather Vane

    Guglielmo Cini was born in 1903 in Italy and arrived in the USA at the age of 17 already an accomplished jeweller and silversmith. His talents were soon recognised and he founded the Cini company in 1922 in Boston Massachusetts. The company specialised in silver jewellery with an emphasis on sculptural design. Cini silver jewellery…

  • Romeo and Juliet

    To celebrate Valentine’s Day this brooch is from the 1930s and depicts Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet in the balcony scene in Act Two when Romeo scales the forbidden garden of Juliet’s house to woe her.  The brooch is French.  There are no markings on the brooch so how do I know this?  The French…

  • Bow

    This pretty brooch is from the 1940s. It is made from a kit sold through a magazine in America.  I have been unable to track down which magazine. The back of this example is covered in leather and has been finished extremely neatly.  I have over the years seen other examples where the back has…

  • Partridge in a Pear Tree

    It was during the 1950s that the craze for and mass production of Christmas jewellery first began in earnest in America.  During WWII wives and sweethearts wore festive ribbons and corsages made of dried foliage, but many of these have not survived.  By the Korean War at the beginning of the 1950s jewellery designers had…

  • Squirrel and Deer

    The brooch is marked as Georg Jensen and is regarded by people as a ‘Jensen’ brooch but in fact it was designed by Arno Malinowski (1899-1976) who worked for Georg Jensen between 1936 and 1944 and again from 1949 to 1965.  The brooch is made of solid silver and has clear markings on the back…

  • Frida Kahlo

    This brooch was made by Iris De La Torre who was born in the city of Guadalajara in western Mexico. She came to London in 2003 to study art & design and jewellery making. Iris has a passion for bright, bold colours and her Mexican heritage has greatly influenced her. She uses plastic which is…