Antique Brooch With Blue Glass, Garnets & Pearls In Gold, England Around 1840

Like so many details in the field of historical jewellery, enamel has a very special history that is closely linked to constantly changing fashions. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the overwhelming majority of even the most precious pieces of jewelry were elaborately enameled. The technique was sophisticated and people loved intense colors, so enamel often framed and complemented the brilliance of precious gemstones. This taste initially changed with the Rococo period. Colonies overseas made it easier to procure colored stones, and people now relied on their effect to shine even more seductively in the candlelight of the salons. Enamel, on the other hand, receded into the background and was only rarely used. It was not until 1775 that the London goldsmith Jusen once again created pieces of jewelry with enamel, now in a deep midnight blue. A few prominent commissions from the royal family were enough to trigger a new fashion: Rings and brooches in "Royal Blue Enamel" quickly became all the rage, even in Paris. This brooch from around 1840 shows that this blue fashion lived on in the mid-19th century - but now with a different technique! The brooch has a multi-layered design and features symmetrically arranged C-sweeps in the Rococo style as well as stylized gold foliage. An inlay of blue glass now looks like blue enamel. However, it is pressed on the underside in such a fluted manner that it looks like fine guilloché enamel. This glass is surrounded by the golden leaves and tendrils, which partially cover it and allow it to shimmer through. The deep blue is reminiscent of the sky on a summer night, as captured in enamel work two generations earlier. The central showpiece is a decorative element with natural pearls and a large garnet cabochon above this mysterious background. Glass used in jewelry is often called "Vauxhall glass" in English. It was first encountered in the early 19th century and was used in varying degrees of fineness until the early 20th century, but then more in the field of costume jewelry. A look at the history of jewelry reveals the original purpose of the brooch. In the first half of the 19th century, friendship gifts in the form of jewelry were particularly common in England. The Biedermeier era revered the culture of remembrance as well as friendship and love and longed for peace after the Napoleonic Wars. People gave each other small gifts to tie up the threads of romantic relationships, wrote letters and poems and read the works of Adalbert Stifter and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. Gifts made from one's own hair were particularly popular as very personal mementos and were often kept in small lockets of such brooches. The garnet probably replaced an originally glazed inlay of braided hair. For jewellery with blue enamel, see Ginny Redington Dawis / Olivia Collings: Georgian Jewelry 1714-1830, Woodbridge 2007, p. 120, and Diana Scarisbrick: Rings. Jewellery of Power, Love and Loyalty, London 2007, p. 93 f. Beautiful examples can also be found in Wolfgang Neumann (ed.): Trauerschmuck vom Barock bis zum Art Déco. Catalog for the exhibition at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel 1995.

Estimate:$1,675.57

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