Witty "Wishbone" Brooch With Natural Pearl and Chick in Gold, Great Britain c. 1900

Wich Came First?

Witty "Wishbone" Brooch With Natural Pearl and Chick in Gold, Great Britain c. 1900

€ 890.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

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Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

There is an endearing custom in English-speaking countries: at a feast - often at Thanksgiving or Christmas - two people pull apart the forked collarbone of the turkey until it breaks. Whoever gets the larger fragment gets to make a wish. This is how the bone got its name Wishbone or Merrythought. The tradition can be traced back to the 17th century and soon made the wishbone a popular symbol of good luck - comparable to horseshoes or shamrocks. In the Victorian era, the motif found its way into jewellery art and became part of so-called "novelty jewellery": brooches, pendants and rings that playfully referred to everyday and lucky symbols. This brooch also features such a wishbone - but in a particularly charming form! It is made of yellow gold and a small golden chick is placed between the two "bones", standing in front of an egg - an egg made of shimmering natural pearl. The age-old joke of mankind is also included here: Which came first - the egg or the chicken? This piece of jewellery combines the popular good luck symbolism of the wishbone with a tongue-in-cheek scene from the henhouse - in the best English goldsmith tradition. A lucky charm that doesn't have to be broken to make wishes come true. We date the brooch to around c. 1900, and for comparison we show a page from the 1904 catalog of B. & H. B. Kent, Diamond Merchants and Jewelers from Toronto, which offered numerous variations on the theme. It can also be viewed online and offered numerous variations on this theme to interested customers. It clearly shows how popular and diverse this design was at the time. We discovered this witty piece in the south of England - a small proof that jewellery can also have a sense of humor.

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"Novelty jewellery" refers to a very special category of historical jewellery that shines not only through precious metal or gemstones, but also through inventiveness, wit and playful symbolism. The term comes from the English and means something like "novelty jewelry" or "original jewellery". It refers to pieces that deliberately break with expectations - be it through humorous motifs, surprising materials or mechanical refinements. Novelty jewelry was particularly popular in the 19th and early 20th century: brooches in the shape of scissors, spiders or pocket watches, tiny miniatures of everyday objects or sentimental messages of love that are only revealed at second glance.