Featured Date of brooch and acorns!

Are these likely Victorian?. Is it possible to date more precisely?
Brooch is glass but real pearls. Heavily gold plated I think.
Acorns are a bit squished but still quite cute. When were these a ‘thing’?. The split ring and mounts test as gold but not marked.
Thanks for looking

 

sure, it's not rosehip or goji or barberry ?

 

The brooch was meant to have a lock of hair in the compartment. Anything there? I wonder about acorns. I have a bar brooch with 4 little black acorns meant to look like jet but actually glass that I'm pretty sure is Victorian. Acorns should be a symbol of rebirth, so maybe the Christian message of to die, only to live again.

When Kate married William they had to devise a coat of arms for her family. Somehow it involved acorns & she wore specially made acorn earrings at the wedding.

 

Just realized the 'stones' in the brooch are purple. That's unusual. The earrings look woody. Light or not so light? Solid or hollow?

 

Could be. Botany isn’t my strength!

 

I will have a close look with a loupe.
Yes the stones are purple and test as glass. Why is that colour unusual?
The acorns/ rosehippy things are definitely organic.

 

Amethyst, I'll bet, commonly paired with pearls. Probably foil backed to deepen the colour.

 

Before I looked more closely, I assumed they were black. 'French jet'. Purple is the color women wore when they were starting to come out of mourning, when they first no longer felt required to wear black.

My guess is the lower parts are genuine acorns.

 

Looks like the chain was added later ? I thought it might be one of those "Lovers eye" brooches .

 

The guard chain does appear to be an addition or to have been reattached.

 

Yes, very similar INH. Thankyou for looking
I have studied the centre of mine and it doesn’t appear to contain anything. Rather it is a slightly domed piece of glass that looks quartz like with silver foil backing.

 

When seen straight on does it look like a diamond?

 

Sadly I don’t get to study enough diamonds to make that call .
Here are some more photos though that are pretty true to what the eye sees.
What are you thinking?

 

The construction of your brooch & the one INH found are so much alike, I'm thinking maybe yours was also meant to have a gemstone at the center. The other is another amethyst, but I was thinking maybe yours was meant to look like a big diamond, a bit worse for age now.

 

Its interesting because the centre reflects the purple when you look at it and makes the centre look purple too. It’s only when you look closer it’s colourless.

 

Since Im convinced its a lovers eye brooch I found this example with the same safety chain. They identified it as Georgian .Im comparing the chain,not the brooch.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-GE...GOLD-AMETHYST-PASTES-BROOCH-PIN-/273777089770

 

Those chains are way later.

 

Those chain are generic. I must have a number of them around here on various brooches, none of them lover's eye or anything like this one.

 

A beautiful late Georgian mourning brooch imo. Purple is one of the accepted mourning colours.
Whether it is a veil/lace pin depends on the size. Veil/lace pins are tiny, but very cute. They were used to secure a lightweight veil or lace shawl. I love them because they are so dainty, and have a modest collection.
I agree, the safety chain is a later addition.