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Antique Brooches
An excellent selection of antique brooches dating from the Georgian eras, Victorian brooches and the early 1900s Edwardian era up to 1920. AntiquesAvenue offers interesting costume jewellery, silver and gold Victorian brooches too.
All prices include delivery. Please click on jewellery description to view full details and more pictures of these items. Happy to answer any questions : Contact AntiquesAvenue
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Antique Brooches from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras can be substantially different from those found in more recent years. One of the main difference we can find is in the materials used. This is due to changes in the manufacturing process for brooches, new discoveries of materials, running out of the availablility of some materials and simple changes in tastes of what we like out brooches to be made from. Here is a look at some of the materials which you can find in antique brooches which are not so common today:
1. Coral Brooches. This was a most popular brooch material in the Victorian era, it had a broef revival in the art deco ear but is not used to make brooches today. Coral could be carved in to a cameo and set into a brooch or just simply a branch of coral set into the frame. Nowadays coral reefs are protected and the raw material is not readily available. .
2. Ivory Brooches. Quite rightly , elephants are now a protected species but they were not quite so lucky in the Victorian era when they were hunted down for their Ivory tusks. AntiquesAvenue does not sell Ivory brooches. I suggest that if you really want to own an Ivory brooch that you buy it from a reputable source which will provide you with a certificate stating that it si a genuine antique piece. This way you can help to ensure that no more elephants are hunted for pure vanity.
3. Jet Brooches. Most jet came from Whitby on the North East coast of England.. It was carved and polished into beads, cameos, cabochons and simple geometric paterns to form brooches. These brooches were of course " Jet black" in colour and were extreemly popular following the death of Prince Albert when Queen Victoria set fashion of deep mourning. Jet is no longer available in the quantities it was back then .
4. Pinchbeck brooches. Pinchbeck is a material which was used as a cheaper substitute for gold in Brooches and other types of Jewellery. It was bright and shiny and didnt fade in colour unlike other gold substitutes. Technologial advancement and discoveries of new sources of gold meant that pinchbeck was no longer used to make brooches . Pinchbeck is popular to collect nowadays.
5. Human Hair. Hair was once very popular in locket brooches. The hair may have been from a lover or someone departed. Georgian and Victorian locket brooches can still eb found today with the original hair contents .The hair is often plaited into intricate patterns and may have tiny pearls placed in it. Nowadays taste has changed. A necklace locket with a snip of a babies hair may be quite acceptable but it it would be very strange to see someone wearing a hair brooch.
Can you think of any more materials which we no longer see in brooches? How about Gutta Percha or Tortoiseshell? Let me know and I will expand this list of antique brooch materials soon.
