Featured What is this antique brooch made from?

Hi everyone,

I picked up this old brooch a few months ago and I just can't decide what it is made from, so I am looking for any thoughts you may have on it!

Is this bakelite, or is it too old for that? I have tried the hot water test on it and perhaps a faint smell but definitely not as strong as on other definite bakelite pieces I have had (I can't decide if I am imagining it or smelling the metal pieces!) It has slight circular lines all over the back so I am thinking probably man made material??

Any thoughts welcome!

 

This may have to go with kyratango's mystery substance. Hinge, clasp & pin also say older. So does the attachment of the findings directly into the material. When first picked up, cold/cool/close to room temperature? For its size is it surprising heavy, surprisingly light or just about right? What sort of sound does it make when you tap it with a fingernail? It looks worked rather than molded. What do you observe that leads you to think man made?

 

Hi Bronwen,

Thanks for the reply. Well it appears close to room temperature and I think about the right weight for its size (measures about 3.5cms from behind.) When tapping with a finger it sounds duller than when I tap a glass but perhaps more solid than plastic.

I was thinking man made purely because of the lines in the back of the piece, but I have no idea.

I haven't been able to find anything like it online yet and it has been puzzling me for some time. I'm glad to know though that it has some age and is older than bakelite. I had wondered at one point if it could be another early plastic (I don't know too much about the different early types for identification) but from what you say it seems unlikely too and it may just be a mystery material!

 

If I had no other information about it, I would think it was wood. I considered Vulcanite, which does go brown over time, but not like this that I've ever seen. Also have never seen any 'bog oak' that was this light in color.

 

My first thoughts were that the front looked like a hardened from age leather, but when I saw the back, I much moreso thought wood......s'all I've got!!

 

It definitely doesn't seem like wood to me either. The front is shiny while the back is matte. I have found one wooden brooch online of a similar shape but it is very obviously wood....this just isn't!

I have no idea if it will help but tried a UV torch on it too (bit blurred as torch was in one hand and camera in the other.) It seems there is something going on around the hinge area on the back, possibly remains of old glue?

 

Link to the wooden brooch on Ebay, as you can see similar shape but very definitely wood!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-...CIRCLE-DONUT-SHAPE-2-1-4-BROOCH-/151986043398

 

Yes, I've recently learned that glue can really stand out under UV. Looks like wood, but trust your tactile info that it is not. I rarely see the findings put directly into the material this way unless the material is organic, such as ivory, bog oak, gutta percha, Vulcanite.

 

Well your thinking that it is likely to be organic has narrowed it down somewhat and I am more confident it has a decent age to it too, thank you.

 

That is very much like yours, although quite a bit newer. The way your doughnut takes up UV also pushes me toward something organic. Especially in that last photo it still looks pretty brown instead of the purple bouncing back off the shiny surface the way it does off the steels. I have a display cabinet filled with little things made in a wide range of materials. When I run the UV light around in it, most things look purple, a few things stay closer to their own color, walrus teeth & tusk, the inner core of antler, ivory. They absorb the light instead of reflecting it. Seeing that here too.

It definitely has some age to it.

 

Thank you, that's good to know about the UV light and organic material. I only recently got my UV light, so I am still playing about with it and learning as I go, so all tips like this are very welcome indeed!

 

It's not true of everything. I think maybe the material has to be porous. Pieces I have that are made of antler that retain most of the original material bounce the light off their outsides. Little pieces made from the core of the antler soak it up. A piece made of 'fossil' walrus tusk barely changes color. Stone & whole shells reflect. On helmet shell cameos, the shiny brown background shines back purple while the white figures are only faintly lavender. Celluloid seems to take up the light to some degree, going sort of brown. One Celluloid cameo I have looks whiter than in ordinary light.

 

Thanks @Bronwen that is all really useful information, I shall store it in the memory banks for future use!

 

Wish I had something more definitive to offer. I don't like unsolved mysteries once I've tried to solve them. Have learned that if you keep the puzzle in the back of your head, the solution does often come along eventually. (For things like this the answer frequently turns up on eBay.)

 

Agree, and with the style, I would say British Arts & Crafts period.

That was my first thought, and still is, but I don't have it at hand.
Could the fluorescence be caused by a coating, lacquer? Maybe bone based, much like bone glue?

 

Well it is certainly very shiny on one side, so possibly could be something on it like a laquer, not too sure how I would tell. The other thought is an organic material that would shine up nicely with a good polish of some sort?

It may be one of these items I just have to get out from time to time and try another search for terms to see what pops up!

Like the Arts & Crafts idea too.

 

What's the size?

~Cheryl

 

When measured from behind 3.5cms in diameter. I have a wee hand but include a picture from yesterday that I took when trying to photograph under the UV, should give an idea of size too.

 

It looks like dyed vegetable ivory (tagua nut) to me, that's why I asked the size - if it is you should be able to see micro-pores through a 30x loupe (my eyes are shot, but believe I can almost see some in the last two pics of your first post)...

~Cheryl

 

I have some carved tagua nut among all the stuff in my display cabinet. It's modern work, so maybe material behaves differently, but what I see under UV: Where some of the brown outer layer has been left on it still looks dark brown. Where it has been pared down only a little, it looks the same color as the rest of the interior in ordinary light, but returns the UV purple back really brightly. Under ordinary light the rest of the interior is sort of a light caramel color. It looks whiter under the UV.

I'm not looking at stuff that's this brown to start with, so color of brooch under UV is consistent with the whitening I observed, just starting from a different baseline.

I never think of tagua nut for pieces this old. Has it been used that long?