Featured Brooches

Here are a few of the brooches that I purchased this morning. The deer smells like celluloid to me. I think the one with the lions has a thin gold plating. The whist is acid testing at 14k. AI was suggesting that it might be a boy scout pin.

 

AI clutching at straws. Or rather, trefoils.

 

It often does that. I am partial to the samoas myself.

 

The celluloid piece might be French. The whist pin ... not Samoan? Maybe some weird tagalong? That guess is a little thin (mint).

 

A search for '1900 whist tournament' turns up quite a bit of stuff, particularly about the Harvard-Yale competition.

 

Hee hee! Now you’re just making me hungry!!!

 

Interesting. I asked the lady specifically about that pin and she had no idea. It was all her mother in laws stuff. She had zero interest in any of it.
I will definitely look into the tournament. Thanks!

 

I find the deer brooch impressive in its own way, the degree to which it was made to resemble actual carved antler/bone. It is also in amazingly good condition: so many little bits that could easily snap off, but it looks pristine to me.

 

Almost! If you notice the deer on the right has a broken back leg.

 

Ah, yes. But in the photo the deer is on the left.

 

Deer is French celluloid. I’ve quite a bit of it. Including one of tower bridge.

Try card games on the whist, it’s a prize one.

 

The second brooch is the coat of arms of Sweden (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...t_coat_of_arms_of_Sweden_(without_mantle).svg)