Floral brooch "en pampille" with diamond roses, around 1850

To attend a ball in the years around 1850 was to witness a magnificent display of flowers: freshly cut flowers, silk blossoms, even ones made of precious stones shimmered in the candlelight. Whether worn in the hair, pinned to the neckline, sewn onto on the silk dresses or kept in a portable bouquet holder („tussie mussie“ or „nosegay“), the fashion plates of those years show us a variety of options for fashionable ladies to indulge in exuberant floral accessorizing. This brooch is testament to the romantic floral fashion of the mid-Victorian era. Asymmetrical and dynamic, it appears as though a blossoming branch had been struck by the wind. Leaves or dew drops seem to drip off the floral arrangement. This type of design with its articulated fringe is typical of the era and usually referred to as a brooch "en pampille". Cleverly designed with the candlelight in mind, the diamond-studded fringe would tremble and sparkle once the wearer moved, be that to dance or simply to fan herself. The brooch is set with a total of 5.00 ct of rose cut diamonds. The dark, patinated silver of the setting emphasises their effect. In order to avoid silver stains on the evening gown, the brooch is crafted with a layer of gold at the back. For comparable brooches, see Brigitte Marquardt. Jewellery. Realism and Historicism. 1850-1895. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Munich 1998, p. 263. See also David Bennet/Daniela Mascetti: Understanding Jewellery, Woodbridge 2010, p.118.

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