Elegant Horseshoe-Shaped Brooch with Diamonds in Platinum, 1920s

This brooch promises good luck. That’s because it’s designed in the shape of a horseshoe—and, as everyone knows, horseshoes are lucky charms! Such pieces of jewellery were particularly fashionable in the years leading up to and c. 1900. However, there was no set rule regarding which way the horseshoe should face. We find pieces of jewellery where it’s open at the bottom and others where it’s open at the top. If you believe that luck is fleeting, you wear the horseshoe with the opening facing down so that luck can’t fly away. However, if you believe that luck can be lost, you wear the horseshoe with the opening facing upward—so that luck remains safely inside. In this brooch, luck is safely enshrined within the horseshoe. The opening faces upward, and the horseshoe itself is richly set with sparkling diamonds: a total of about one carat of diamonds are set in platinum here—in a remarkably delicate manner! On the outside, rose cut diamonds are set within a frame reminiscent of doily lace. On the inside, each of the larger diamonds, set in its own square setting, appears to almost float within the brooch. The brooch’s pin is crafted from white gold. Since white gold was not patented until around 1912, the brooch must have been created after that: its craftsmanship and minimalist, clean design suggest it was made in the 1920s.

Estimate:$4,139.18

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