Featured Antique gold tone metal star brooch with cut steel decoration

Well, that's different.

 

Those look like cut steel decorations on there. Odds are it's the same age as the clothing. Beyond that...dunno.

 

I think I LIKE it!

 

I would not have guessed that to be 1880s.

 

It's one of those jewelry pieces that I find mildly disturbing. I'm not sure why. I like it, but I can't stop staring at the star's texture and those weird steel protrusions.

 

I get that and see no ‘point’ to that center doodad at all. Perhaps the person who made it had all those findings about and found a use for them?
I still like it though.

 

This is one of the few pieces of jewelry where I have a visceral reaction looking at it, haha. I think it may be because the findings are slightly asymmetrical and the whole thing just looks slightly skewed off. But I also really like it, which is weird.

 

Looks like a starfish with water droplets.

 

That is a really different piece.

How are the steel cut pieces attached? At first glance they appear to be glued, but from the back they seem almost "drilled in" like they all have pegs or something.

I also would never have thought older, but that construction does not seem modern at all.

How is the center part attached? Can you see in there from the side?

I would hold on to this until you find similar. It's really interesting.

 

This pin has been bothering me. The back with the striations doesn't look 1880s to me. I would have thought more 1930s.

So I went searching for cut steel pins. Could not find any. However, I kept coming up with cut steel buttons. Here are a couple that are listed as Victorian buttons. So maybe your assumption that this is 1880s is correct.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/478775...rch_query=cut steel buttons&ref=sr_gallery_24

https://www.etsy.com/listing/519158...rch_query=cut steel buttons&ref=sr_gallery_42

 

The cut steel studs are essentially rivets, tapped into the holes in the base - if I recall correctly, pieces with the cut steel being decorative elements on items of gilt metal, mother of pearl, etc. rather than the cut steel covering the entire base were generally from the late 19th century into the early 20th, so 1880s seems fine for dating...

~Cheryl

 

Interesting piece. I wonder why the star itself is designed to sit so far from the pointy pin bar? Almost as it it was meant to go around a gather (rather than through a single layer), of cloth.

 

This piece has a similar stamped texture, as well as a center flower element: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-VICTORIAN-RIVETED-CUT-STEEL-FLORAL-BROOCH-ON-MOTHER-OF-PEARL-/192325727761?hash=item2cc781b611:g:kKUAAOSwYXtZymfc&nma=true&si=UpSDAzFkOKX667TL9gimJiWOfYo%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Another stamped gilt metal base, I just like this bug: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-VI...874151?hash=item2391cb48e7:g:sKEAAOSw-0xYT02e

Here's a smaller, somewhat similar five-pointed star, believe it's earlier than yours, with the heavy hand-cut base and the facets a bit better cut: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-RIVETED-CUT-STEEL-BROOCH-/322610784076?hash=item4b1d19e74c:g:GrYAAOSwPbBZdbdV&nma=true&si=UpSDAzFkOKX667TL9gimJiWOfYo%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
~Cheryl