Nature as an Artist

Unusual Gold Brooch with Gold-Bearing Quartz and Natural Pearl, c. 1885


€ 1,290.00 *
Content 1 piece
Incl. VAT, Shipping
Unusual Gold Brooch with Gold-Bearing Quartz and Natural Pearl, c. 1885
Unusual Gold Brooch with Gold-Bearing Quartz and Natural Pearl, c. 1885
Description
This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!
The jewellery of the 1880s showed a wide range in its designs. On the one hand, historicism still reared its head, and revived motifs of the Renaissance and antiquity found favourable wearers. On the other hand, very contemporary jewellery creations were created in the spirit of naturalism, in the meticulous depiction of flowers and insects, but also of realism: everyday objects, now depicted in gold and silver, were elevated to the status of jewellery. This brooch belongs to the latter movement and takes the form of painting utensils. A painter's palette lies on a painting stick, with a brush passed through the thumb hole. Golden foliage, presumably laurel leaves, completes the composition, while a large natural pearl adorns the end of the brush. The real surprise lies in the palette itself. What at first glance appears to be impasto applied color, streaky and shiny, turns out on closer inspection to be gold in its most original form. Four inlays of gold quartz show natural veins of gold as they grow in the rock. With the theme of nature as artist, the brooch fits in wonderfully with the themes that not only moved the jewellery makers of the 1880s: realism and naturalism were also present in literature, and photography with its supposedly objective-scientific depictions and its idea of painting by light continued to spread. We discovered the brooch here in Berlin. In its execution and design, it is a typical piece of jewellery from the 1880s, when utilitarian objects often became the adornment of gold bar brooches.
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Size & Details
Unusual Gold Brooch with Gold-Bearing Quartz and Natural Pearl, c. 1885
Nature as an Artist
€ 1,290.00 *
Content 1 piece
Incl. VAT, Shipping
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Our Promise
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