Georgian-Style Animal Brooches, ca. 1835
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GUEST:
My grandmother had these pieces and she liked to collect things that had animal imagery on them. And when she passed, she passed these things along to me directly because we both shared an affinity for beautiful objects. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
Do you like animals?
GUEST:
I love animals, and I have several of them at home, but these are especially... they're a little different than the ones that I have at home. I don't have a snake or a bird, but I do enjoy the glittery quality of these.
APPRAISER:
Let's talk about this one first. This is a snake. And most people are afraid of snakes, but this snake is amazing. If you look closely you will see that his tail actually winds around and becomes the bail of the piece. He has a large pear-shaped diamond-- it's a little over a carat-- in his head, and it's an old mine cut. And then there's single diamonds around him, around that head. He does prove to be 18-karat. The blue material, this is a large piece of lapis lazuli. And we do think he is French, and about 1830s, 1840s. That's his... that would be the Georgian period.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Now, the bird is much more intriguing. He is also from the Georgian period, a little bit earlier. Now, the Georgian period, they had a bit of a shortage of gold, and so the jewelry that was made at the time, these jewelers learned how to stretch gold. Not literally stretch it, but they could take some gold and they would make this amazing type of work called canatille.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And canatille is very tiny filigree wires. Now, the interesting thing about this piece is on the back we have a brooch mechanism.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
It's actually more of a contemporary sliding lock brooch. It has a trombone hinge. This was originally a pendant.
GUEST:
I thought so from the little piece on the beak there.
APPRAISER:
Right. There is a tiny loop here. There is also evidence of some major restoration work right along here. This piece is extremely lightweight.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And the Georgian pieces are. So during this period, 1830s, the fashions went back to a very narrow waist and a tight bodice. And so they were wearing long chains and this bird probably was extended from a long chain and then the bird dangled from that. That was how it originally looked. It was fabulous. Both of the pieces are unmarked. Now as to value, we decided a nice retail value on the snake is about $4,000 to $6,000.
GUEST:
Oh wow, okay. All right.
APPRAISER:
Now on the bird, even in this condition, even though it's been what we call a marriage-- it's been changed from its original function-- in a high-end retail situation the bird is going to be $5,000 to $7,000.
GUEST:
Wow, okay.
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