Featured Thoughts on Stone type, Please

Looks like a possibility based on this showing turquoise from different mines in the US:



Have you googled "green turquoise" to try and find similar colored stones?

 

Very nice brooch, inh, looks late 19th century. And it looks like turquoise to me too. Green turquoise is found in most turquoise regions of the world.

It is near impossible to know where this specific turquoise is from, but If you want to hazard a guess, it would be interesting to know where green turquoise was mined at the time this brooch was made. That may not have been the US.

 

Green unakite?

 

Not unakite.

 

That type round hinge was introduced in the 1890s. I would think the brooch was made pretty close to 1900. A nice oldie, Arts & Crafts influence.

 

Another contender is variscite. It's in the same family.

 

It looks like something was attached at the top of the brooch. Could it have been a pendant/brooch at one time?

 

In the 19th century brooches often had a small chain with a tiny safety pin attached to a loop at the back. Extra security in the period before safety clasps.
Ironically, those chains got lost more often than the brooches did. Some people cut the loop off, leaving a mark.

Here is one of mine. A little bump at the top where the loop used to be:


Yes, the hinge is brass, the rest is silver.
I also have some brooches with the chain still attached, but no photos in the archives that I can find.

 

You'll see two stick pins with a chain between them too. They were cloak pins or the like. I've seen lots of those safety chains.