Featured Opinions wanted- brooch

Yes, and thank you.

 

I can't see this NOT being silver, with that carved amethyst. And very nice, too. I've a fair bit of unmarked Scottish silver jewellery.

 

I suspect that it is silver. Oxidized silver is a blue green. Darker and more blue than copper. It should also have a "feel" to it. It may not be sterling or even coin silver but I suspect that it is partially silver. I do not have a problem with the pin or catch. I do have a problem with the amethyst; perhaps it could have replaced another stone? But, it may be that it is original? Carngorm, Citrene, amethyst, and beach agate were the most used by the Scotts. Because of the King's duty on precious metals there was quite a bit of early Scottish jewelry, and I suspect Irish jewelry, that escaped the King's assayers.

 

There are many Scottish plaid brooches with an amethyst, not that strange at all, imo.

I have known Scottish jewellery all my life but I must say the term beach agate is new to me. I would think that is like pebbles found on a beach?
As far as I know Scottish agate is mined. In the Ardownie quarry near the town of Dundee, for instance, but there are other quarries dotted around the country.

However, there is a very collectible Scottish jewellery style called pebble jewellery. Contrary to the name, it is not made from stones that were just picked up, but from mined stones. Pebble used to be a name for non-precious stones.
Our fellow member Jewelscollectingdust has some nice examples on her site:
https://www.jewelscollectingdust.co.uk/scottishpebbleenameletc.htm

 

BMRT, while looking at the page I just posted above, I found this plaid brooch:

https://www.jewelscollectingdust.co.uk/scottishpebbleenameletc.htm

The engraving reminds me of yours and it also has a tube hinged pin. It isn't silver, the stones are glass. But the asking price is quite a surprise, certainly much, much more than I paid for my sterling silver one.

 

Lovely! Here are some Oregon Coast beach agates that I collected a couple of years ago. I have some blue ones too.

 

Nice, Kiko. So they are agates you collect on the beach.

 

Yes. It's quite the thing in Oregon. I had a sensational summer collecting them. I must a 200 or so, some quite nice.

 

This is mine which is not silver.

 

Nice, KSW, and a very similar style to the other two. And it looks like all three could have been made around the same time, maybe even by the same maker.
The plot thickens.

 

I've not heard beach agate as a term either. I shall go fish out my brooches and take photos.

 

It seems to be an American term, rather than a Scottish one. Although I am sure you could find agates on Scottish beaches as well, agates in Scottish jewellery were not found on beaches but mined.

I have some pebble and Cairngorm jewellery as well. But I will probably save those for another time, as I have already taken a dive in my boxes this morning for the intaglio thread.

 

Sorry, but I don't agree. In the NW corner of the US we call it "beach agate". You may call it pebble agate. I agree that the carngorm, amethyst, citrene, and clear quartz (all quartz but just different colors) are mined. Agate may be mined, but I seem to recall in my readings that much of the early Scottish jewelry was made from stones found on the beaches. I can refer you to an article "Hunting Agates in Scotland" by Sandy Ramsay printed on pages 127-129 of the "Rocks & Minerals" magazine of Vol. 29, 1954, Issue 3-4. He describes picking up agates along a Scottish shore. Sounds Logical to me that these might be what you call pebble agate and what we call beach agate? It also seems logical to me to utilize these agates, which were much easier to obtain, in jewelry than to resort to hardrock mining to obtain them.

 

Don't be sorry for a well fleshed out opinion..!!

 

It isn't called pebble agate, not in Britain anyway, and certainly not where I live. Maybe that is another US term?

I never disputed the possibility of finding agates on Scottish beaches, btw. They even find garnets along the coast of Fife, Scotland, in a place erroneously named Ruby Bay.
You may have missed what I wrote before:

Important agate quarries were just north of Ruby Bay, in volcanic country near Dundee.

I probably didn't explain it well before, but a certain style of Scottish jewellery is called pebble jewellery because the stones were small pieces and not considered precious stones.
Agate etc jewellery has been made in Scotland for centuries, and in the early days the stones were found as pebbles in creek beds. Ever since then any smaller non-precious stone was considered a pebble, whether found in a creek or mined. A bigger piece was called a 'slab agate'.
So in this case 'pebble' is not another term for beach agate. It had lost its original meaning of creek found stones in the 19th century and became a new, more generic term. Even Scottish slab agate jewellery falls under the category pebble jewellery. What is in a name?
Scottish pebble jewellery was not just set with agates btw, other popular stones were jasper, malachite, bloodstone and 'cairngorm'. They were all regarded as non-precious, and part of pebble jewellery.
And Scottish pebble jewellery is Scottish, not American.

There were many agate mines in Scotland in the 19th century, the heyday of Scottish pebble jewellery. There was also a huge production of Scottish pebble jewellery. And what were the mined agates used for, if not for jewellery, etc?

Scottish pebble 'luckenbooth' brooch, small pieces of non-precious stones:


Scottish slab agate brooch, one big piece:

 

I'm not seeing any verdigris on my monitor, just darkened places totally consistent with silver. Everything about it looks consistent with many other Scottish silver & amethyst brooches. Except the carved amethyst. Other than this one, can only find faceted ones in search results. I have a lovely silver brooch, made in the US, holding an amethyst plum I suspect was carved in China, as the carved jade elements used by same maker probably were. I'm getting that feeling here.

 

Interesting idea - about it being carved elsewhere. I think it's more likely, given our empire, that if was done overseas it was in India or perhaps Burma.

I'm with @Any Jewelry on the agate thing. It wasn't hard rock deep mining in Scotland either, surface open cast.

 

Maybe 'quarry' is a better word?

 

It is indeed a good word for it.

This is good: https://www.agatesofscotland.co.uk/

 

I had used the term quarry before:

But since Gus didn't pick that up, I thought it may not be a term used in the US. I could have said open quarry, maybe that would have explained it better.

Maybe the amethyst was carved in Idar Oberstein? Just a thought.