Mystery Brooch

I had a post under the Silver forum here, about this "mystery brooch" wiht no marks, see this link: https://www.antiquers.com/threads/silver-or-not.34381/

Anyone interested in taking over this - in my opinion - beautiful little brooch?

I made an error in the "silver" forum as it is actually 2 cm in diameter, not 2,5 - or 0.787"

For all images see the link to the thread- hope to get some interest here!

 

Hello, Torkel. I saw this in the silver forum too, but thought others would come along with more general knowledge about antique jewellery than I have. My thoughts are that it quite probably is silver (front may be while back may not be), but without a mark only testing will tell for sure. The British have been sticklers for marking silver and maintaining sterling as the standard for a very long time. If this were English, think it would be marked, liberally. The style of the hinge is different than those I see on the cameo brooches I buy, which are usually English, American, French or Italian. The button-like design is also different from the styles that were popular among English ladies of the Victorian era, which is the time period I would assign your brooch to. It looks very strongly built. Hope someone with a knowledge of Scandinavian and the Germanic countries will give an opinion.

 

absolutely love it..but then I said that before Were you able to see if it could be opened? the mystery continues

 

It's a good question. This could be a hinge:



and this could be a notch to lift from:



But gently; opening and coming apart are not quite the same thing.

 

Agreed, i tried gently - but will not make any mistakes here, so hopefully the next owner will have the pleasure to solve this!

 

I'd say the odds are good someone took part of a broken ladies' watch with sentimental value and made it into a brooch. Possibly a patch box too, for that matter, but odds on a watch.

 

Somewhere I have a small silver box - not sure what it was for, but always thought it went with a dresser set - and the top is almost exactly like this. I agree with evelyb that it's a 'married' piece.